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
https://arab.news/vkh8x
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
Real Madrid handed shock home loss as Celta Vigo spring surprise
- Celta jumped from 14th to 10th while the defeat ended Real’s 100 percent home league record this season after six successive wins
MADRID: Real Madrid suffered a shock 2-0 loss and finished with nine men against Celta Vigo in LaLiga on Sunday after Williot Swedberg scored an audacious goal with his heel and a second in stoppage time to leave the hosts four points off leaders Barcelona.
Swedish substitute Swedberg cleverly diverted a cross from Bryan Zaragoza past Thibaut Courtois in the 53rd minute to put Celta ahead and had an easy finish three minutes into added time, going around the goalkeeper to wrap up the points.
Real’s cause was not helped by the 64th minute dismissal of Fran Garcia, who picked up two yellow cards in 60 seconds, but they laid siege to the visitors’ goal for the last 20 minutes as Celta went into a defensive shell to hold onto their advantage.
Real defender Alvaro Carreras was also dismissed for two cautions, his second coming in stoppage time at the end of the game as the home side’s frustrations boiled over.
It was a second clean sheet in 15 league games this season for Celta, whose keeper Ionut Radu made a first-half save from Jude Bellingham’s header and stopped a second-half free-kick whipped in by Kylian Mbappe.
Real stay on 36 points from 16 games as Celta celebrated a first win at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu in 19 years, leaving the Galician club with 19 points.
“With the team they have and their quality, it’s difficult to match them, but we read the game well,” said Celta striker Borja Iglesias. “We had possession, we played in their half, we played a fantastic match.”
Celta jumped from 14th to 10th while the defeat ended Real’s 100 percent home league record this season after six successive wins.
Xabi Alonso’s stuttering Real team have now won only one of their last five league games as they await the midweek arrival of Manchester City in the Champions League.
Earlier on Sunday, Espanyol moved up to fifth as Roberto Fernandez’s first half penalty handed them a 1-0 home win over Rayo Vallecano as both sides finished with 10 men.
Elche’s Rafa Mir scored twice as they ran out 3-0 home winners over struggling Girona, while hosts Valencia and Sevilla remained in the bottom half of the table after a 1-1 draw.
