Naomi Osaka played well in her first Grand Slam match as a mother, but she was ultimately overpowered by Caroline Garcia at the 2024 Australian Open.
Two-time Australian Open champion stepped out onto the Melbourne courts in a very fascinating first-round matchup at the first Grand Slam of the year. She faced Caroline Garcia, which is more like a quarter-final matchup, given the qualities of both players.
Yes, neither is playing that great at the moment, even though they had some solid wins. Osaka won a match in Brisbane, while Garcia played quite a bit of tennis this year as well. Stylistically, they're also quite similar players, so the pace of play was pretty fast.
Both are strong servers and created a lot of pressure with the serve, but even if they didn't, the points wouldn't last too long. Garcia is a known attacker who dislikes long rallies while Osaka played pretty aggressively as well.
Such a match was mostly going to be determined by who was more consistent, and early on, it was Garcia. It kind of makes sense because she played more tennis this year compared to Osaka, and obviously, that matters.
Neither was spectacularly precise from the baseline, but Garcia was a little bit better. 6-4 was the score in the first set, which had more winners and fewer unforced errors. It really came down to that.
The second set was pretty much similar, though Osaka seemed to be finding a bit of a better level than in the previous set, but she still couldn't exert too much pressure on Garcia.
Neither player managed to break, so the set ended up in a tie-break, which was as close as the match was. Ultimately, Garcia was just too good. She couldn't be touched on the serve, and that's why she won 6-4, 7-6(2).
Naomi Osaka vs Caroline Garcia Match Stats
| Naomi Osaka | Caroline Garcia | |
| 11 | Aces | 12 |
| 3 | Double Faults | 4 |
| 51% | First Serve % | 57% |
| 78% (28/36) | Points Won After First Serve % | 89% (32/36) |
| 60% (21/35) | Points Won After Second Serve % | 64% (18/28) |
| 0% (0/0) | Break Point Conversion | 33% (1/3) |
| 20 | Winners | 34 |
| 25 | Unforced Errors | 24 |
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