Former world number one Naomi Osaka made history as she blasted her way into the Wimbledon fourth round for the first time with a win over Daria Kasatkina, Yankee Scores reports.
Osaka has won all four of her Grand Slam singles titles on hard courts and has struggled to play her natural, big-hitting game on the French Open clay and All England Club grass courts.
Naomi Osaka reaches the fourth round for the first time with some wonderful displays 👏 pic.twitter.com/soAlhTmB72
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 3, 2026
But the Japanese 14th seed – who turned up on Court One in another showstopping outfit – looked at home at SW19 as she thrashed Kasatkina 6-1 6-3 in just 65 minutes.
Less than five weeks ago, Osaka reached the last 16 of Roland Garros for the first time, and now she has been dominant in her play.
A blockbuster showdown could be next for Osaka, if Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka gets past Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko later on Friday, as the former is the top seed, per BBC Sport.
“I definitely felt really good today. I’ve played a lot of matches on grass for the past two weeks, so I felt really confident,” the 28-year-old said.
Last month, Osaka reached her first grass-court final at the Bad Homburg Open but was forced to retire injured in the opening game of the second set against Karolina Muchova.
But it seems her run in Germany has given Osaka a much needed confidence boost on the surface and she has yet to drop a set at Wimbledon.
Osaka made only six unforced errors in a near-perfect first set and lost just five points on serve.
In a post-match interview, Osaka told the crowd that daughter Shai had turned three on Thursday:
“I don’t think I should be telling you this, but she was kind of bad yesterday.
“We tried to take her to the park, but then she needed to be in time-out, so we are going to try to take her today.
“It was an awesome birthday, she blew out her candles and made a wish, so I hope her wish is to behave better. If not, today is a new day for her!”
