Naomi Osaka made a winning to the WTA 250 tournament in her hometown Osaka after ousting 17-year-old wildcard Wakana Sonobe 6-0 6-4.
The four-time Grand Slam champion, who is the top-seeded player at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open this week, came out firing on all cylinders and bageled the world No. 266 in the first set.
Early in the match, Sonobe - who made her WTA debut in Osaka - was clearly feeling the pressure of playing the best player from Japan. But at the start of the second set, the 17-year-old wildcard started competing much better and she even recovered from a break down to have the score tied to two games apiece at one moment.
ADVERTISEMENT
However, the top seed remained unfazed and registered another break in the fifth game before serving her way into the round-of-16.
In the next round, the home star plays against world No. 57 Suzan Lamens. In the past, they met once on the grass courts of 's-Hertogenbosch and the Japanese won their match 6-2 6-2.
Osaka needs ranking points
The Japanese, who entered this week ranked at No. 16 in the world, isn't defending any points for the rest of 2025. And she is hoping she can have a strong end to the year and even possibly return to the top-10.
Thats (the rankings) kind of the tough part that I was dealing with today. Of course, I want to end the year in the top 10, but I dont want to stress myself out too much about it. During the US swing, when I had a good run, I wasnt really thinking about rankings, other than, like, getting seated in this land. But Tomasz (coach Wiktorowski). told me that theres a like a little difference between being seeded like 16 or something. So I think thats my goal for the end of the year," Osaka explained in Wuhan.
