Naomi Osaka didn’t must take her sport out of cruise management on Thursday afternoon.
The 2-time U.S. Open champion, seeded No. 23 at this 12 months’s match, dominated American Hailey Baptiste, 6-3, 6-1, in entrance of a sleepy early afternoon crowd at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Naomi Osaka competes within the 2nd spherical of the 2025 U.S. Open tennis championships on the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Middle in Queens on Aug. 28, 2025. (Andrew Schwartz/New York Each day Information)
The second-round match lasted simply 70 minutes and ended with Baptiste, 23, serving up her ninth double fault on match level.
Osaka, 27, was quizzed after the match about whether or not she feels she has a deep run in her right here in Queens.
“Honestly, I don’t really know. I don’t make it my business to know anymore. I kind of just leave it up in the air. For me, I realize that I’ve done everything that I could. I’ve trained really hard. I practiced really hard. If it happens, it happens. But, yeah, I’m just kind of playing match by match.”
The four-time Grand Slam winner, sporting a purple Nike bubble hem skirt on this 75-degree day in Flushing, repeatedly pumped her fist, slapped her thigh and bounced backward and forward all through a match she dominated from begin to end.
Naomi Osaka competes within the 2nd spherical of the 2025 U.S. Open tennis championships on the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Middle in Queens on Aug. 28, 2025. (Andrew Schwartz/New York Each day Information)
After combating off a break level in her opening service sport, Osaka took quick management of the match by breaking Baptiste to go up 2-0.
Double faults can be the story of the day for the Forty seventh-ranked Baptiste, who received her first profession match on the U.S. Open with a Spherical 1 victory over Katernina Siniakova (7-5, 6-3) on Monday. She additionally unleashed 25 unforced errors, received solely 48% of her first-serve factors and was beneath risk on virtually each service sport.
Naomi Osaka competes within the 2nd spherical of the 2025 U.S. Open tennis championships on the USTA Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Middle in Queens on Aug. 28, 2025. (Andrew Schwartz/New York Each day Information)
Osaka capped the primary set with a 109-mph serve out vast within the ninth sport to succeed in set level at 40-15. She then fired up an 112-mph serve to shut out the set.
She averaged 105.6 mph on her first serve Thursday, topping out at 115 mph. She served up 4 aces in opposition to only one double fault.
General, Osaka — who received the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2020 — received 5-of-8 break factors. She received 69% of her first serve factors, dropping just one service sport within the match, and received 81% of the factors on Baptiste’s weak second serve.
Put up-match, Osaka described her younger foe as “an incredible player.”
“She’s someone that’s very dangerous. For me, a player that can kind of hit any ball from any part of the court. That’s kind of why I told myself I had to focus really hard today.”
The Japanese star, who’s in the identical quarter of the draw with third-ranked American Coco Gauff, will subsequent face the winner of the match between No. 15 Daria Kasatkina and Kamilla Rakhimova.
It was the second consecutive straight-sets win for Osaka on the 12 months’s remaining Grand Slam after she beat Greet Minnen, 6-3, 6-4, on Tuesday evening.
“I would say I made progress in my attitude,” Osaka stated when requested how she improved from her opening match, “which is the one factor that I actually needed to work on.
“I think Tuesday I was getting really down on myself in certain moments. … And then today I just really tried to be positive even if she hit a crazy winner or even if she did something incredible, and I tried to be very stable …”
She has already surpassed her efficiency from final 12 months when she misplaced within the second spherical to Karolina Muchova in straight units after not taking part in within the ’23 occasion whereas on maternity depart. Her daughter was born in July of that 12 months.
Osaka, born in Osaka, Japan, and raised in Elmont, Lengthy Island after which Florida, was simply 20 years outdated when she beat Serena Williams in a wild ending to the 2018 U.S. Open to say her first profession Grand Slam title. The ultimate rating that day was 6-2, 6-4, however the match might be all the time be remembered for Serena dropping her poise and accusing the chair umpire of being a thief.
The primary-time champ was in tears throughout the trophy presentation as boos rained down from the surprised Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd who felt Serena had been cheated after she repeatedly went after it with the ump, together with receiving a warning after which being penalized twice for code violations.
Osaka returned to the highest in Queens two years later throughout the COVID-restricted U.S. Open with a three-set victory over Victoria Azarenka.
Initially Printed: August 28, 2025 at 3:57 PM EDT
