By Chris Oddo | Saturday October 6, 2018
All eyes were on red-hot Naomi Osaka, who had won 14 of 15 matches and was bidding to for her third consecutive final, but it was Latvia’s Anastasija’s Sevastova who came up bigger on the big stage on Saturday at Beijing.
The 28-year-old notched her fourth Top 10 win of the season, handing Osaka a 6-4 6-4 defeat that places her into the China Open final—the biggest of her career.
Though not as heralded as U.S Open champion Osaka, Sevastova has been no slouch herself in 2018 and she’ll be rewarded with a shot at her first Premier Mandatory title as well as a career-high ranking next week—Sevastova will rank 12th if she loses the final and could go as high as 11 with the title.
In total, the Latvian has notched 39 wins thus far in 2018, and reached her first Grand Slam semifinal on her 23rd major appearance in September.
And, she’s yet to drop a set in Beijing.
On Saturday Sevastova saved three of four break points and converted three of eight break opportunities against Osaka to improve to 2-1 against the Japanese star.
After Sevastova saved two break points to hold for 3-all in set one she engineered the only break she would need to claim the first set in the seventh game.
Sevastova finished a solid set with six aces, her last one coming on her first set point.
Sevastova said that an issue with her stomach muscle might have actually helped her in this match.
"Maybe I don't go to much for the serve, I just tried to hit my angles and the placement," she said. "I think not going too much for ace or fast serves--just going for placement--that helped."
Though Osaka struggled with a back injury that seemed to hinder her a bit all week, she hung tough and avoided going a double-break down in the second set by saving a pair of break points to get to 3-4.
Osaka then broke in the next game to level at four-all, but Sevastova promptly replied by taking the final two games to clinch the victory in just under one hour and 32 minutes.
Sevastova will move on to face either second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki or China’s Wang Qiang in the final.