MASON – The unexpected swagger of wildcard entry Jil Teichmann shut down No. 2 Naomi Osaka 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 Thursday night at the Western & Southern Open. The upset sent Teichmann to the quarterfinals while it eliminated Osaka from the field.
After top seeds dominated all day, Osaka, a 2-seed, looked to continue the trend with her swift 6-3 first set start.
But, when Teichmann took a break after the first set, her thoughts led to her second set actions.
“I thought ‘OK I started off bad but I’m actually close.’ I didn’t really feel like she’s much better than me today, right now,” Teichmann said. “I took this confidence into the second set. I thought I’ll serve out well and I’ll get my chances to break her and that’s what happened.”
The left-hander threw Osaka’s early momentum off balance in the second set, digging the top-ranked player into a 5-3 deficit before claiming the set 6-3.
Teichmann’s performance took some by surprise, especially after Osaka looked like she might put this one away in a quickly, but Osaka wasn’t shocked.
“I remember watching her play against Coco (Gauff) in Australia and I was thinking ‘This girl is really talented,’” Osaka said. “Also, people play me at a really high level so I’m always ready for that. For me, even though she played really well, I know that there’s a lot of things I need to fix within my game.”
Osaka said she thought she played a bit too defensive as the match progressed.
In the third set, the duo battled through long rallies until Teichmann claimed the 6-3 victory for her third-ever Top 5 win.
The loss is the second recent upset for Osaka. She was eliminated from the Tokyo Olympics in the third round of women’s singles play by Marketa Vondrousova. She said the sting of that upset remains.
“I also thought that my performance in Tokyo was lingering in my mind a bit because I felt like I was a little too aggressive there. I feel like I learned a lot from this match today and I thought that if there’s anything to take away from this, I tried my best throughout the entire match,” Osaka said.
Earlier on Thursday, Cincinnati’s Western & Southern Financial Group announced it will match Osaka’s prize money at this week’s tournament to Haiti’s earthquake relief efforts. Osaka’s third round exit totals her prize money to $24,200.
"I was definitely really happy about that. I’m kind of sad now that I couldn’t have gone farther but I think the main thing was to raise awareness and I feel like I did that pretty well. Overall, I’m just glad that we were able to contribute something,” Osaka said.
Teichmann will move on to face the winner of the Belinda Bencic vs. Karolina Muchova match in the quarterfinals.
Western & Southern pledged to match Osaka's contribution to the relief effort in Haiti after a devastating earthquake on the island.
Here's what Osaka had to say about the contribution:
“I was definitely really happy about that. I’m kind of sad now that I couldn’t have gone farther but I think the main thing was to raise awareness and I feel like I did that pretty well. Overall, I’m just glad that we were able to contribute something."
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