By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka powered into the Indian Wells quarter-finals on Tuesday, beating former champion Naomi Osaka 6-2, 6-4.
Both players were meeting for the first time since 2018, when Osaka beat Sabalenka at the U.S. Open en route to her maiden major title, but the Belarusian’s power proved too much for the former world No 1.
“It’s crazy, for so many years we only played once I’m pretty sure we are playing many more matches she’s coming back playing great tennis,” Sabalenka said.
“I’m pretty happy for the result – much better than last time.”
Osaka, who did not play for 14 months around the birth of daughter Shai in July 2023, began the match with a confident opening service game.
However, Sabalenka soon found her rhythm and broke the 28-year-old Japanese’s serve to take a 2-1 lead. The Belarusian tightened her grip with a barrage of powerful backhands to lead 5-2, then served out the set comfortably with an ace.
Osaka and Sabalenka both held serve early in the second set before the latter seized control at 4-2 with a decisive break before she served out for the match.
“I’m happy that I put so much pressure on her today, that I brought variety to the court,” Sabalenka added. My serve worked well. On the return I played really great tennis. Happy with my performance for sure.”
Sabalenka, who finished runner-up last year, will face Canada’s Victoria Mboko or Amanda Anisimova of the United States in the last eight.