Osaka fires 13 aces en route to first Miami semifinal, faces Bencic

Former No.1 Naomi Osaka has advanced to her first Miami Open semifinal after defeating Australian Open semifinalist Danielle Collins, 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. Osaka becomes the second Japanese woman to reach the semifinals at the Miami Open since Kimiko Date Krumm in 1993 and 1995.

Osaka will face reigning Olympic champion Belinda Bencic for a spot in her first WTA 1000 final since 2020. 

Osaka has not lost a set en route to the Miami semifinals. She defeated Astra Sharma, Angelique Kerber, Alison Riske and No.9 seed Collins. She has now won nine of her past 10 quarterfinal matches. 

En route to the 60-minute win, Osaka fired 13 aces and rolled through her service games with ease. She did not face a break point in the match while breaking the Collins serve five times. The three-time major champion took advantage of a sub-par serving day from Collins, who called a medical timeout to address a neck issue after the first set. The American served at just 38% for the match and misfired on seven double faults. With Collins struggling to find her first serve, Osaka dialed in on her second-serve return, winning 68% of the time. 

"I'm glad I was able to get through quickly. I focused on trying to hit a lot of really good returns," Osaka said. "This is actually my first night match too, so I didn't know what the conditions would be like.

Including her ace count, Osaka hit a total of 25 winners to only three unforced errors in the match. Despite her struggles on serve, Collins was solid off the ground, hitting 18 winners to 16 unforced errors. But on a near-perfect night for Osaka, Collins could not find a way through the 24-year-old's high-octane performance.

Miami will be Osaka's 18th career semifinal, with 16 coming on hard courts. The two exceptions came on grass at 2018 Nottingham and clay at 2019 Stuttgart. Since the start of 2019, Osaka is 6-1 in contested semifinals.

"After Australia, I was training really hard every day," Osaka told reporters after the match. "I went to Indian Wells with the intention to do really well, and then I didn't. But Wim told me, Listen, you're playing really well. But it's hard to listen to someone tell you you're playing well without having the results to back it up.

"I'm glad that, in a way, I don't have a good ranking, because I'm able to play the matches that I need to play. I feel like I'm the type of person that plays better with more matches, so actually having back-to-back matches benefits me a lot."

Osaka will now turn her focus to Bencic, who has also looked in resurgent, dominant form over the fortnight. Seeded No.22 this week, Bencic has not lost a set and has dropped only  17 games across her four matches.

Osaka's sole win over Bencic came on the ITF level back in 2013 at a tournament in Pelham, Alabama. The 25-year-old Swiss has beaten Osaka in their three matches on the Hologic WTA Tour, with their last meeting coming at the 2019 US Open. Bencic won 7-5, 6-4 in the Round of 16.

"I get really emotional when I play people around my age or younger," Osaka said. "I don't know if it's like this thing that I want to be better than them, but I just automatically put a lot of pressure on myself. I kind of acknowledged that after I lost to Coco that one year. I'm just like, you know what? I'm at an age there is going to be a bunch of young, really good players, and I have to respect them and know that they are here for a reason. I was once in their shoes.

"I think my mentality was a very big part in my losses back then. Hopefully, it will be better, because I feel like I have kind of worked through it. So hopefully on Thursday, it will be more about tennis. She's a really good tennis player. She won the gold in Tokyo, which I really wanted to win. She's clearly ranked where she is for a reason."