Naomi Osaka Showcases Power Before Beijing Fall

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Naomi Osaka Showcases Power Before Beijing Fall
By Ken Miller, Lawn Tennis Analyst, Posted: Thursday, October 8, 2026 7:58am PST USA

Beijing-- Tuesday in round four in Beijing at the China Open, the former world number one and 12th seeded Naomi Osaka of Japan delivered powerful serves and groundstrokes before falling to the 7th seeded Karolina Muchova of Czechia 7-5, 1-6, 7-6(9-7) after two hours and 52 minutes of play.

Osaka struck multiple aces and aggressive groundstrokes to take leads of 4-1 in both of the first two sets.

Muchova raised the level of her play to connect with several forehand winners as Osaka committed an increasing number of errors to level set one at five games all.

Serving at 30 all, Osaka hit powerful serves but committed

Naomi Osaka of Japan

In set two, Osaka struck a 121 miles per hour ace down the tee which she followed up with a 120 miles per hour ace down the tee to hold serve and lead 4-1.

two crosscourt backhand errors to lose serve and trail 5-6 in a key set one game.

After dropping set one, Osaka recovered to lead while serving at 3-1 deuce in set two.

Osaka struck a 121 miles per hour ace down the tee which she followed up with a 120 miles per hour ace down the tee to hold serve and lead 4-1.

In the final set, Osaka broke serve at one game all before holding serve to lead 3-1.

wever while serving at 3-2 deuce, Osaka sent two groundstrokes wide to drop serve and level the set at three games all.

Later in the set, Muchova held serve to lead 5-4.

Serving to stay in the match, Osaka saved five match points often with powerful groundstrokes which forced Muchova to slice both her backhand and forehand in defense.

However at seven points all in the tiebreaker, Muchova struck a down the line backhand winner to reach match point number eight.

Muchova hit an aggressive inside out down the line forehand which put Osaka on the run in her forehand corner.

Osaka struck a defensive down the line slice forehand.

Muchova approached the net before striking a crosscourt backhand volley winner to end the match.

Osaka left the court with a wave to the crowd who applauded her efforts.

For the day, Osaka finished with 117 total points won to 108 for Muchova which includes 11 aces for Osaka to four aces from Muchova.

However perhaps it was the final tiebreaker aggression from Muchova which ultimately won her the match as the Czech finished the match with 52 winners to 35 winners from Osaka.