NOTTINGHAM, Great Britain - No.3 seed Naomi Osaka is through to her first WTA quarterfinal on grass after powering past Denisa Allertova in straight sets at the Nature Valley Open.
Osaka needed just over an hour to seal the 6-3, 6-2 victory, and didn’t face a single break point throughout the encounter.
The Indian Wells champion never counted grass among her favorite surfaces - before this week, she had never notched back-to-back main draw wins on the surface outside of Wimbledon. Now, the 20-year-old Japanese player adds another milestone to her year of breakthroughs with her first grass court quarterfinal appearance.
“I feel better about grass since I won, but so far it’s going really well for me,” Osaka told the crowd afterwards. “It’s always better for me to just play matches - I’m the type of person that when I play more matches, I play better.”
Up next, Osaka will face the ascending Mihaela Buzarnescu in the quarterfinals. The No.5 seeded Romanian, fresh off her career-best Grand Slam result at the French Open, edged past Irina Falconi 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 earlier in the day.
