While Osaka’s Naomi may be more comfortable at the Grass Court these days, she will leave Wimbledon again after a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 defeat to Anastasia Pavlichenkova on Friday.
I thought Osaka actually thought I could play well, like, “Generally, run deep here.”
“I wanted to do it better than before,” she said. “I also felt like I was trying so hard.”
Osaka has arrived at the All England Club this year after losing three of the last four games at this venue and losing a 5-4 career record. Her best show was to reach the third round of 2017 and 2018. She missed the tournaments in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
From the 4-All in the third set, Pavlyuchenkova grabbed eight of the final 10 points of the match, grabbing love and broke the final game with the help of a trio of defenseless forehand errors by Osaka.
Osaka fell 0-6 in three sets of matches at Wimbledon or the French Open.
“The majority of you were rooting for Naomi, and that’s fine,” Pavlyuchenkova, who turned 34 on Thursday, told the crowd in Court No. 2.
Osaka is a former No. 1 and four-time Grand Slam champion currently ranked 50th, all on hard courts, winning the US Open and the Australian Open twice. She said she’s already looking forward to the hard court season.
Osaka asked what positivity they could take away from the grass section of the season. “I’m going to be the negative person I am today. Sorry, I have nothing to say about myself.
Ranked 53rd, Pavlyuchenkova was the runner-up in 2021 at the French Open, and Friday’s victory moved her to the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time since she reached the quarter-finals nine years ago.
Former Wimbledon Quarter Finalist and America’s 13th Seeda Manda Anishimova defeated Dharma Galphi 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 to reach the fourth round.
Argentina’s Solana Sierra defeated Spain’s Christina Bussa 7-5, 1-6, 6-1 to become the first lucky loser to reach the fourth round of a women’s single at Wimbledon in the open era (since 1968). Sierra is the seventh female lucky loser to reach the fourth round in every major during the open era, a list that includes Everlys at the Australian Open this year.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report.
