With temperatures well above 100 degrees, the entire match was played under the roof, a switch that made for tremendous quality and a highly pleasant viewing experience, quite different than the weary, dance marathon-like quality of battles waged in excessive heat.
Amid these comfortable conditions, Osaka and Pliskova repeatedly struck the ball with concussive power, attained exceptional length and served with power and precision.
Said Pliskova, “I think the conditions with the roof closed were perfect for her. Not that it would be bad for me, but she just loved it maybe little bit more.”
Emphatic as Osaka was at the close, so she was equally assertive at the start. In the first set, Pliskova served at 1-1 deuce. Osaka in that game hung in rallies just long enough to lace two backhand down-the-line winners. In the 32-minute opener, Osaka hit 16 winners, closing out the set with a pair of aces.
When Osaka broke to start the second, the freight train appeared primed to shift into higher gear. Prior to today, Osaka had won 58 consecutive matches after winning the first set. In the face of such firepower, Pliskova hoped the storm would pass.
“I was just fighting,” she said.
Of course, as proven yesterday versus Serena Williams, Pliskova fights quite well. Don’t let her placid demeanor deceive you. Pliskova has her own fearless and tenacious qualities, aided by her piercing, flat strokes and excellent serve. She broke Osaka at 30 to even the second set. Serving at 4-4, 30-all, Pliskova then won six straight points to take it into a third. She too had posed questions. Would Osaka have the answers?
Said Osaka, “There are moments in the match where I thought, like, this is getting really close. I just thought I wouldn't forgive myself if I had, like, a little dip or a moment of accepting defeat.”
Aware of a past tendency to get negative, Osaka’s body language was positive. Like a boxer keen to issue one body blow after another, she bounced on her feet, thoroughly engaged.
Pliskova served at 1-all and faced an Osaka barrage, including winners off both sides that generated a highly debilitating outcome for any server: broken at love.
From there, Osaka continued to swing free. Earlier in the tournament, she’d struggled versus the variations in speed and spin issued by Su-Wu Hsieh and Anastasija Sevastova. Though she’d won both of these matches in three sets, Osaka had also suffered frequent patches of awkward play. But Pliskova is a tuning fork, her clean balls quite user-friendly so long as you can track them down. Throughout the third set, Osaka was in the groove. She snapped up the only break point she needed and fought off all four held by Pliskova. All told, Osaka had hit 56 winners (to only 20 for Pliskova).
Osaka has now won 13 straight matches at Grand Slam events and is one win away from becoming the first woman to win two straight singles majors since Serena Williams won Roland Garros and Wimbledon in 2015. Saturday night she will play Petra Kvitova. As was the case last year in Melbourne when Caroline Wozniacki and Simona Halep met in the final, whoever wins this match will be world No. 1. Ranked 72 a year ago, Naomi Osaka at this point is not merely a star. She is a supernova.
