Fourth seed Naomi Osaka of Japan rose to the challenge in her first match since the COVID-19 layoff and overcame the always-tricky Czech Karolina Muchova 6-7(5) 6-4 6-2 to advance to the third round of the Western & Southern Open.
The former world No.1 didn’t get an opportunity to slowly adjust to competition, as she faced a really tough opponent already in her opening match. After narrowly losing the first set, Osaka established early leads in both the second and third sets and held on to them by never having her serve broken during the battle that lasted two hours and 33 minutes.