By Chris Oddo | Thursday January 24, 2019
At times Naomi Osaka beat Karolina Pliskova with pace. At others; movement. In times of need, clutch serving.
But in the end it was Osaka's ability to seize the moment and take care of business under pressure that guided the No.4-seeded Japanese sensation to her 13th consecutive Grand Slam victory and her second Grand Slam final in as many appearances.
There would be no great escape for Pliskova on this day, try as she may. Osaka, who was the more imperious player from start to finish, notched a thrilling 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 victory to book a spot alongside Petra Kvitova in the women’s singles final.
It was a classic battle of big servers that surprisingly revealed Osaka’s decided edge in the power department. Osaka tattooed 56 winners to just 20 for Pliskova and struck the ball with wicked pace throughout the contest.
She came out with an aggressive gamepland and consistently took the play to Pliskova.
Full credit to Pliskova for finding a way back into this match with one of the game’s premier frontrunners. Osaka, who has now won 59 consecutive matches in which she has claimed the opening set, took the first set behind near perfect serving and opportunistic returning. She used her most improved quality—her defense—to open up a third break point in the third game as she kept a point alive with a forehand squash shot and finished with a forehand winner. On the next point Osaka converted the break for 2-1 by cracking one of her 15 backhand winners into the open court.
She kept the pressure on Pliskova, breaking for 5-2 and sealing the set with back-to-back aces.
The pair exchanged breaks to start the second set with Pliskova rallying to level at 1-all, and the Czech saved a trio of break points in the next game to put her nose in front 2-1.
Pliskova’s game was revived at this juncture of the match. She was showing lots of grit and she was going toe-to-toe with Osaka in the rallies, often seizing points with first-strike tennis. Suddenly a pair of brilliant points from Pliskova, the first a backhand down-the-line winner and the second a forehand winner, gave her break point for 5-3, but Osaka answered quickly with a 1-2 punch forehand put-away. She repeated on the next point to earn a game point and closed the game with her third consecutive forehand winner.
Pliskova never wavered and eventually did break through to claim the set at love to level things and force a decider.
The Czech nearly nudged ahead in the third set as well but Osaka, sensing the importance, once again delivered sublime tennis in the clutch, saving three break points to level at one apiece.
Like a tried-and-true veteran she used the momentum garnered and broke to love in the next game for 2-1. This was a theme throughout the match: the remarkable poise and presence of the 21-year-old, who seems to rise to each and every difficult circumstance she encounters during a match these days.
The single break was all Osaka would need to get to the finish line. There would be one more break chance for Pliskova, with Osaka serving at 4-3, and it would be calmly snuffed out by Osaka’s 14th ace.
Two points later it was the 15th ace that clinched the victory. It was originally called out and Osaka gestured prayer as she waited for Hawk-Eye’s verdict.
When her prayer was answered she broke into a relieved smile--another day, another victory. It has become the norm for Osaka, and she now owns the longest WTA Grand Slam winning streak since Serena Williams won 33 straight from the 2014 U.S. Open to the 2015 U.S. Open.