Women’s world number three, Naomi Osaka defeated American World number 22, Jennifer Brady in straight sets 6-4 6-3 to claim her second Australian Open title and fourth Grand Slam in all.
The 22 year old Japanese-American dropped only one set en route to her fourth Grand Slam crown at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne on Saturday.
Finalist, Jennifer Brady came into the final on the back of a semifinal win over 25th seeded Czech, Karolina Muchova looking to avenge her defeat at the hands of Osaka at the 2020 US Open semi-final.
Osaka on the other hand was on a 20 match winning run at tour level tennis, the current longest of any professional player, and defeated 39 year old Serena Williams in straight sets in her own semifinal, ending Williams’s hopes of winning an evasive 24th Grand Slam title.
Osaka looked comfortable from the first serve as she prevented Brady from building up any momentum by wrapping up the first set 6-4.
Brady rarely threatened as Osaka kept a stranglehold on the game, with her opponent only really looking strong in the last few games as she tried to gain control, but it was ultimately too little, too late as Osaka wrapped up the second set 6-3 when Brady’s return went out of the baseline of the court.
Osaka had to navigate her way past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round, Caroline Garcia in the second, Ons Jabeur in the third, Garbine Muguruza in the fourth round, Hsieh Su Wei in the Quarterfinals, and Serena Williams in the semifinals.
Of these players, only Muguruza managed to take a point off Osaka as she defeated her opponents in straight sets. Brady on the other hand had to face Aliona Bolsova Zadoinov in the first round, Madison Brengle in the second, Kaja Juvan in the third, Donna Vekic in the fourth round, Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals and Karolina Muchova in the semis en route to the final.
With this victory, Osaka has now won all of the Grand Slam finals she has participated in, and has won a title every calendar year since 2018 when she won the US Open, she won the Australian Open in 2019, US Open in 2020 and now the 2021 Australian Open.
Osaka won her fourth Grand Slam title, becoming only the first player since Maria Sharapova in 2012 to win more than three grand slams. No other player has won a fourth Grand slam ever since.
She also becomes only the seventh active player to have won four or more Grand Slam titles after Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters. Osaka has now won 7 professional WTA titles, with four of the seven being on the biggest stage in Grand Slams.
The 22 year old who is becoming the favourite of fans who bet on Tennis would now look to the remaining tour games of the year to try and continue her impressive 21 match winning run, and hopefully pick up another Grand Slam or two as she would undoubtedly look to further stamp her authority as the new queen of tennis.
