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By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday January 3, 2020

 
Naomi Osaka

Naomi Osaka played her first match since the 2021 US Open and notched a three-set win over Alize Cornet.

Photo Source: Getty

Naomi Osaka returned to the WTA Tour for the first time since the 2021 US Open and claimed a hard-fought three set win over Alizé Cornet to reach the second round at the Melbourne Summer Set 1, an Australian Open warmup event.

Tennis Express

Top-seeded Osaka, now ranked 13, needed two hours and two minutes to toppled the 61st-ranked Frenchwoman, and won despite a 38.3 first-serve percentage and just three aces. The four-time major champion saved one of three break points and converted three of 11 against 31-year-old Cornet to open her 2022 season on a positive note.

24-year-old Osaka built a 6-3, 3-1 lead but went off the rails for 20 minutes and dropped five straight against Cornet.

"I was expecting to play a tough match today because we've played once before, ironically probably the first round last year, as well," Osaka said. "I knew that we both kind of knew each other's games a little bit more this time around. But yeah, I was really happy with how it went. I thought that I stayed pretty calm throughout. But hopefully in my next rounds I can be a little bit more energetic."

Osaka was more solid in the third set. She never faced a break point and held her nerve as she served out the contest from 0-30.


“I feel like I made a lot of unforced errors today, but I expected that because it is the first match and I was really nervous,” she said after the match. “I'm just glad I was able to hold my serve in the last game."

Osaka cracked 57 winners against 51 unforced errors. She will face Petra Martic or Maryna Zanevska in the second round

Osaka told reporters that the time away from the court during her turbulent 2021 season could actually be blessing. She says she was happy to have time to reflect on what she loved about the sport and why she missed it.

"During the off-season I just hung out with my friends and talked to my family a lot," she said. "I felt like that was a way of decompressing the pressure I had on myself.

"Then I just slowly started to regain the feeling of love that I had towards the game. It's not like it ever completely went away, but I felt like it got overshadowed by a lot of emotions that I was feeling just by constantly playing year after year since I was like -- I started tennis when I was three years old, and I never really took a break. Yeah, sometimes it's just good to remember why you're playing and stuff."

 

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