Naomi Osaka falls short in thriller, Coco Gauff earns her most dominant win

Naomi Osaka had a heartbreaking finish to her Madrid Open run as she misplaced a thriller, whereas Coco Gauff impressively began her marketing campaign at Caja Magica by registering her first double-bagel win.

After clinching her first clay win in two years on Wednesday, Osaka got here near beating No. 15 seed Liudmila Samsonova however fell simply brief because the Russian sealed a 6-2 4-6 7-5 win. The match lasted two hours and 22 minutes and, whereas it was encouraging for Osaka to have managed to get again within the match, it was definitely very disappointing to lose in the long run. 

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On the opposite facet, No. 3 seed Gauff completely destroyed world No. 47 Arantxa Rus, claiming a 6-0 6-0 win. For Gauff, this was the primary time in her profession that she gained a match with no single misplaced recreation and it took her 51 minutes. 

How Osaka misplaced a thriller to Samsonova?

Osaka acquired off to a really sluggish begin to the match as she suffered back-to-back breaks and misplaced the opening 4 video games of the match earlier than Samsonova routinely closed out the set within the eighth recreation. 

At first of the second set, Osaka’s poor show continued as Samsonova earned an early break and a 2-0 lead. Down by a set and a break, Osaka managed to get the break again however once more dropped her serve within the fifth recreation as Samsonova went 3-2 up within the set. Once more dealing with a deficit of a set and a break, Osaka responded impressively as she claimed back-to-back breaks and gained the following 4 video games to ship the match right into a decider.

However when the third set began, Samsonova managed to regroup and break Osaka within the third recreation. Whereas Osaka managed to get the break again immediately within the fourth recreation after which save break factors within the seventh and ninth video games, she misplaced her serve once more within the crucial moments within the eleventh recreation as Samsonova opened a 6-5 lead and served out for the match within the following recreation.

Gauff gave no likelihood to Rus

Within the first set, Gauff did not enable Rus to have a single recreation level and in addition did not face any break factors. 

Just about the identical occurred within the second set as Rus once more did not have a single recreation level. Nevertheless, Rus did handle to earn some break factors within the second set however she missed out on all of her 4 break factors within the second recreation. 

In her subsequent match, Gauff performs towards 2024 Australian Open semifinalist Dayana Yastremska.