‘You Need To Have The Will To Fight’ - Osaka Through To ASB Quarter-finals

Thursday, 2 January 2025, 2:45 pm
Article: RNZ

Jamie Wall, Digital Sports Journalist
1 January 2025

Even with big names pulling out and the local hopeful gone, there's plenty of life left in the ASB Classic.

The crowd got what they came for on the New Year's Day session, as drawcard Naomi Osaka advanced through to the quarter-finals with a 7-5 6-3 win over Austrian Julia Grabher.

Osaka's killer instincts took over at the end of a tight first set, in which Grabher defied the 400 ranking spots between the two to almost force a tie break. In the second, Osaka sent down five aces to wrench back control, closing it out after breaking Grabher twice.

"I feel like for me, it's really interesting because…I'm not really a confrontational person," Osaka said of her lift in intensity.

"But when you're on the court, it's kind of like you're in a boxing match and you need to have the will to fight more than the other person. And I feel like I finally found that again."

Osaka famously took a break from the game after struggling with the pressures of being such a high profile athlete, but her demeanour this week has shown she is very much returning to the mindset that won her four Grand Slams.

"I've said this for years - I'm not the most talented player. But I always felt like I work the hardest. And that, for me, gives me a lot of confidence.

"Then it's just, you know, trying to go into a fist fight with another person and in the end, it's who wants it more. I think last year it was really difficult for me to get that mindset, and you could see that in a lot of my matches."

However, she admitted that there were times on court where things got tough.

"I think there are moments where it's really difficult where I do get down on myself. But then I think today, I don't know, I just kind of realised, I was pregnant not so long ago, and I just really wanted the opportunity to play again.

"And now I'm finally here and I'm putting up a really good fight, and I hope that I can just keep continuing this way."

The former world number one moves on to play the winner of American Hailey Baptiste and Jodie Burrage in the quarter-finals. The 179th-ranked British player would have to be one of the luckiest qualifying losers in tournament history, as she took over from the injured Elise Mertens and has been handed a real chance to make a WTA 250 quarter-final.

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