LONDON – Today’s Naomi Osaka may be more comfortable on the grassland, but she will leave Wimbledon again in the third round after losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Friday.
Osaka is the top 1 and is now ranked 50th with four Grand Slam champions on the hard court – she won the U.S. Open and the Australian Open twice.
Osaka arrived at the All England Club this year, where she lost three of her last four games at the location and beat her career 5-4. Her best performance was entering the third round in 2017 and 2018; she missed the 2021, 2022 and 2023 matches.
From the third set, Pavlyuchenkova scored eight points in the last 10 points, grabbed eight points in love, and then broke into the final game with the help of three forehanded errors in Osaka.
“Most of you cheer for Naomi, but that’s OK,” Pavlyuchenkova, who turned 34 on Thursday, told the crowd in court No. 2: “I’m mentally tough, so that doesn’t bother me. Quite the contrary: It gives me energy.”
No. 53 Pavlyuchenkova is second in the 2021 runner-up at the French Open, and her victory on Friday made her first in the fourth round at Wimbledon since the quarterfinal nine years ago.
