‘Something to build upon’ – Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka make winning starts to season
Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka both made strong starts to the 2020 campaigns as they registered relatively routine wins.
Williams ended her 2019 season with defeat to Bianca Andreescu in the final of the US Open, meaning she had not played for quite some time.
However, she looked her usual powerful self, easily registering a 6-3 6-2 victory over Italy’s Camila Giorgi at the ASB Classic in Auckland.
“[I] spent a long time off from tournament play, match play, so solid is pretty good, Williams told the WTA website. “It’s a great start to build on.”
Serena Williams will now face American Christina McHale ahead of a possible meeting with Coco Gauff in the quarter-finals.
Osaka, meanwhile, needed three sets to beat Maria Sakkari, but she overcame a second-set blip to claim a 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-3 win at the Brisbane International.
“I knew going into it that it was going to be a really hard match,” Osaka told the Media after the match.
“I think in the second set, I was just complaining a lot in the tie-breaker. I was just trying to calm down and stay positive.”
“I think I got off to a better start and was able to apply the things I wanted to.
“In the second set, she knew what to expect, so she wasn’t fazed by how hard I was hitting. She got more used to it and more comfortable, so it was a bit harder to win the points as easily as I did in the first set.
“In the third set, I think I just wasn’t as tired because she was the one that was moving more than me.”
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