Naomi Osaka has made an outstanding return to the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing after the Japanese tennis star annihilated world No. 77 Lucia Bronzetti 6-3 6-2 in her opening match.
On Wednesday, the 26-year-old played her first match at the China Open since beating Ashleigh Barty in the 2019 final. Also, it was the Japanese's first clash since suffering a heartbreaking US Open second-round exit and also the meeting during which Patrick Mouratoglou debuted in her coaching box.
And playing in front of home Asian fans and with Serena Williams' former long-time coach sitting in her box, Osaka looked great as her serve but also forehand and backhand worked pretty well.
Now, the four-time Grand Slam champion is set to meet No. 21 seed Yulia Putintseva, who had a first-round bye. Against the Kazakh, the former world No. 1 has two wins and three losses but it should be noted that she ended on the winning side when they clashed at the Billie Jean King Cup earlier this year.
How Osaka saw off Bronzetti?
Early in the match, the Japanese struggled a bit as she missed out on a break point before losing her serve in the fifth game. However, it didn't take long before the 26-year-old shook off the early nerves as she responded by earning back-to-back breaks and winning the next four games to go from 2-3 to 6-3.
At the start of the second set, Osaka went on another major run after claiming five games in a row to open a very comfortable 5-1 lead. In the seventh game, the former world No. 1 didn't realize two match points on Putintseva's serve but made no mistake on her fourth that came on her service in the following game.
During the match, Osaka fired seven aces - won 79 percent of her first serve points - and also converted four of eight of her break point opportunities.
