NEW YORK, Sept 6 \u2014 Two-time US Open champion Naomi Osaka survived another erratic outing, beating Belgian Elise Mertens 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 yesterday to reach the US Open fourth round.<\/p>\n
Osaka had 41 unforced errors, her backhand in particular letting her down as she was unable to build on a comfortable first set for the second straight match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m literally shocked that I won this match,\u201d Osaka, seeded 13th, told an adoring crowd in Louis Armstrong Stadium.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a certain point where I felt like I put my entire heart on the court. I just kept trying every point.\u201d<\/p>\n
After an early exchange of breaks in the second set, Osaka failed to convert a pair of chances and Mertens broke again for a 5-3 lead.<\/p>\n
Osaka gifted the Belgian two break points with a double fault, saving one with a forehand winner before sailing a backhand wide.<\/p>\n
Mertens finally took the set when Osaka dumped a backhand into the net.<\/p>\n
Mertens kept the pressure on in the third and was rewarded with a break for a 3-2 lead, aided by a string of backhand errors from Osaka.<\/p>\n
Osaka was clearly frustrated, berating herself and exchanging some testy words with her team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t feel like I played amazing, it was really getting me down,\u201d she told the crowd, offering an apology for her behaviour.<\/p>\n
She was down a break trailing 4-3 when she took a medical timeout for treatment on her left calf and ankle.<\/p>\n
Osaka returned with renewed vigour, breaking Mertens at love for 4-4 and saving a break point in the next game for a 5-4 lead.<\/p>\n
Mertens didn\u2019t go quietly, saving a match point on the way to 5-5 and saving two more in the final game before Osaka secured the win. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK, Sept 6 \u2014 Two-time US Open champion Naomi Osaka survived another erratic outing, beating Belgian Elise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,7611,19641,19643,19639,19642,19640],"class_list":["post-36446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-elise-mertens","tag-louis-armstrong-stadium","tag-medical-timeout","tag-naomi-osaka","tag-unforced-errors","tag-us-open"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117222019202719891","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}