AUCKLAND: Four-time Grand Slam singles winner Naomi Osaka has started 2025 in style, beating Julia Grabher 7-5, 6-3 Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the Auckland tennis classic.
Osaka overcame a swirling breeze and a lengthy rain break to progress comfortably beyond the second round. Although the wind often affected her ball toss, Osaka didn’t drop her serve at any stage and broke Grabher once in each set to win her way to the Auckland quarterfinals for the second time. Osaka also reached the last eight on her only previous visit to New Zealand in 2017.
“She was a really tough opponent for me to play against and I felt I just had to concentrate on myself a lot and try not to be as nervous as I felt,” Osaka said.
“I got some great advice from a great coach over there,” Osaka added, referring to Patrick Mouratoglou who recently joined her team and previously had a long association with Serena Williams. “I just tried to focus on my bullet points and go out swinging if I had to go out. But fortunately I’m here to play another round.”
Osaka again showed no sign of the back injury which ended her 2024 season at the China Open in October. She moved freely, went to the net rarely but effectively and hit hard, especially from the forehand side.
Osaka’s first serve was a powerful weapon and she won 80 percent of points when she put the serve in play.
The first set was tight, without a break of serve until the 12th game. Osaka came back from the rain delay which came when she was leading 40-15 in the previous game and seemed to step up, holding serve and breaking the Austrian player immediately to take the first set.
She held serve to love in two of her first three service games in the second set, then broke Grabher in the sixth game to go ahead 4-2. Osaka continued to hold serve comfortably, closing out the match on her first match point.
The Auckland tournament is a tune-up for the Australian Open, which begins Jan. 12, and lost some of its star power on Tuesday when former US Open champion Emma Raducanu withdrew with a back injury. Elize Mertens also pulled out of Auckland with injury, leaving Osaka to face a more open draw
Naomi Osaka wins again to reach the quarterfinals at the Auckland WTA tournament
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Naomi Osaka wins again to reach the quarterfinals at the Auckland WTA tournament
- Osaka overcame a swirling breeze and a lengthy rain break to progress comfortably
Cambodia pulls out of SEA Games in Thailand over border conflict
- At least 11 soldiers and civilians have been killed on both sides, according to officials, as renewed hostilities derailed a US-brokered truce
- Cambodia had already pulled out of eight sports at the Thailand-hosted Games, but National Olympic Committee of Cambodia chief Vath Chamroeun wrote in a letter Wednesday to the Southeast Asian Games Federation that it would bring all of the country’s athl
BANGKOK: Cambodia withdrew on Wednesday from the Southeast Asian Games, an Olympic official said, as a border conflict with hosts Thailand escalated and forced a mass exodus of civilians from both sides of the disputed frontier.
At least 11 soldiers and civilians have been killed on both sides, according to officials, as renewed hostilities derailed a US-brokered truce.
Cambodia had already pulled out of eight sports at the Thailand-hosted Games, but National Olympic Committee of Cambodia (NOCC) chief Vath Chamroeun wrote in a letter Wednesday to the Southeast Asian Games Federation that it would bring all of the country’s athletes home.
“Due to serious concerns and requests from the families of our athletes to have their relatives return home immediately, NOCC must withdraw all of our delegation and arrange for their prompt return to Cambodia for safety reasons,” he wrote.
The Games officially opened on Tuesday and run until Dec. 20 in Bangkok and the nearby coastal province of Chonburi, with thousands of athletes from southeast Asian countries competing in events ranging from football and fencing to skateboarding, sailing and combat sports.
But renewed fighting this week between Thailand and Cambodia over a long-standing border dispute has overshadowed the Games.
There was tightened security at Tuesday’s opening ceremony at the Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok attended by Thai royals and featuring Thai K-pop idol BamBam.
A small delegation from Cambodia took part in the athletes’ parade.
This week’s clashes are the deadliest since five days of fighting in July that killed dozens before a shaky truce was agreed, in large part owing to intervention by US President Donald Trump.
Both sides blame each other for sparking the renewed clashes, which on Tuesday expanded to five provinces of both Thailand and Cambodia, according to an AFP tally of official accounts.
More than 500,000 people have fled their homes to safety in Thailand and Cambodia since the conflict reignited, both governments said on Wednesday, surpassing the total number evacuated during similar clashes earlier this year.
The dispute centers on a century-old disagreement over borders mapped during France’s colonial rule in the region, with both sides claiming a smattering of boundary temples.
