For the first time in three years, the tennis world will see Naomi Osaka in the third round of the Grand Slam.
The two-time Australian Open champion advanced to the third round of the tournament with a 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over No. 20 seed Karolina Muchová on Wednesday. The win was also a reversal of the pair’s meeting at the 2024 US Open, which Muchová won 6–3, 7–6.
Osaka will face former top 5 player Belinda Bencic in the third round.
Another win would be Osaka’s first appearance in a fourth Grand Slam round since her win at the 2021 Australian Open, which feels like a lot more than four years ago. That was the year Osaka retired from tennis after a controversy at the French Open, in which she said she would forgo media appearances due to mental health issues.
Osaka took another break after a difficult exit from the US Open that year and struggled further in 2022. She quit tennis to give birth to her daughter in 2023 and struggled to get back into shape when she returned last year.
However, it’s not like she didn’t have any obstacles in Melbourne this year. She broke up with her daughter’s father, rapper Cordae, last week, withdrew from her latest tune-up tournament, the Auckland Open, the week before due to an apparent stomach problem and is currently facing the prospect of losing her home to the Los Angeles wildfires.
After her first-round win over Caroline Garcia, she said she had to send someone to get her daughter’s birth certificate, via ESPN:
“To be honest, I don’t think I did the best concentration, but I obviously won, so I think it’s an acceptable job,” Osaka said about dividing her thoughts between Los Angeles and the tournament she is competing in. “It’s really hard for me… because I find my house is more of a home now because I have memories of my daughter. There are so many things – souvenirs and things like that.”
Despite all that, Osaka took a step forward that she had been waiting for for years.