Naomi Osaka’s winning run came to an end in the second round of the WTA Premier 5 tournament in Miami: The Indian Wells winner lost to Elina Svitolina in two sets.
Elina Svitolina, in fourth place in Miami, finally won the duel between two players who have been very successful on the WTA Tour in the last weeks with 6:4 and 6:. The Ukrainian, who has already won in Brisbane and Dubai this year, will meet the winner of the match between Andrea Petkovic and Daria Gavrilova in round three.
For Naomi Osaka, the 2018 tennis fairytale has found a brief interruption. After her triumph in Indian Wells, the 20-year-old, who has been looked after by Munich’s Sascha Bajin for a few months, also defeated Serena Williams in Miami.
Osaka’s match plan was to play the forehand of Svitolina as often as possible. According to the current world ranking Favoritin often only knew how to help herself with a defensive slice. However, the pace also picked up in important phases. And benefited from Osaka’s mistakes, which after the efforts of the last few weeks no longer seemed quite fresh.
After a tight first set, Svitolina took a quick 4-0 lead in round two. Osaka at least managed to write to us for the time being. After a 5-1 draw Elina Svitolina suddenly began to tremble: First she missed her first two match points in the seventh match and then had to fend off three Osaka break points. After 82 minutes, however, the Ukrainian’s victory was perfect with the successfully scored third match point.
Here the single tableau of the ladies in Miami