Naomi Osaka has become just the second woman to win four from four Grand Slam finals that she has contested.

Embed from Getty Images

Osaka added to her 2019 Australian Open and her 2018 and 2020 US Open titles.

Monica Seles won six straight Grand Slam finals starting with the 1990 French Open and going through to the 1992 French Open. She finally lost in a final at the 1992 Wimbledon tournament.

Osaka started the final serving to love against American Jennifer Brady.

Brady struggled a bit in her opening service game before finally holding.

Osaka pounced in the fourth game breaking Brady to love to move to a 3-1 lead.

The American was able to break back immediately to get herself back into the set, a Brady service hold saw the score at 3-3.

Osaka held and then put the pressure right back on Brady as she brought up a break point at 30-40, but Osaka could not convert, however she did take Brady to deuce a few more times.

In the ninth game Osaka had to fight off a break point before holding to lead 5-4.

A double fault gave Osaka a sniff of a chance when it took the score to deuce before back-to-back forehand errors from Brady saw her concede the opening set after 41 minutes.

The 2019 Champion looked to be cruising toward victory as she held a 4-0 lead and had game point for 5-0.

Brady would however break serve and then hold to get back to 4-2 with Osaka again serving. A hold had Osaka one game away from another title.

The American would hold before Osaka stepped up to serve for the championship.

This time there was no coming back with Osaka serving to love to claim her fourth Grand Slam singles title 6-4, 6-3.

“I didn’t play my last Grand Slam with fans so just to have this energy it means a lot,” Osaka said to the fans during the trophy presentation, cradling the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup.

“Thank you so much for coming. I feel like playing a Grand Slam is a super privilege right now and it’s something I won’t take for granted. Thank you for this opportunity.”

The win took Osaka’s win streak to 21, including another US Open title.

World no. 27 from the Czech Republic has staged another comeback, this time defeating world no. 1 Ash Barty 1-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Barty looked to be cruising to back-to-back Australian Open semifinals after taking the first set and getting a break of serve in the opening game of the second set.

Embed from Getty Images

After Muchova held to take the score to 2-1 she received treatment and took a medical timeout.

After the match she said she was feeling dizzy.

“I started feeling a bit lost by the end of the first set. Ash started very good, she played almost like no mistakes, it was very tough. And I was a bit lost on the court, and my head was spinning (with dizziness) so I took a break,” explained Muchova.

Barty raced out to a 5-0 leaved before Muchova held serve. The first set was in the bag after another Barty hold of serve.

After the medical timeout Barty was serving. Muchova was now starting to mix up her pattern of play and it seemed to unsettle Barty.

Before the timeout Barty had committed seven errors. By the end of the second set that had gone out to 25.

Muchova who had comeback from 0-5 in the second set of her round three match against Karolina Pliskova and 0-4 in the first set against Elise Bertens was making another strong comeback.

In the eighth game of the second set Barty served two double faults to help Muchova break to extend he lead to 5-3.

The Czech then served out to love to level the match at one set all.

Barty was broken at the start of the third set and then fought hard to break back. She quickly had two break back points at 15-40 but errors were hurting her chances.

Muchova got a double break in the seventh game to then attempt to serve for the match.

A Muchova backhand forced error gave Barty her first chance to break back at 30-40. A Muchova winner saved that. Barty again held break point at Ad, only to have an unforced error to lose that opportunity.

Muchova double faulted to again give Barty a shot at getting one break back.

That would be Barty’s last chance and Muchova closed out the match to advance to her first Grand Slam semifinal.

“Without a doubt it’s disappointing. We learn, we move on, we don’t let it ruin what has been a really successful, enjoyable start to a new season,” said Barty

“I felt like I lost my way with overplaying, over-pressing, not letting myself work into the points and really construct points as well as I’d like to,” she conceded.

“It’s heartbreaking, of course. But will it deter me, will it ruin the fact we’ve had a really successful start to our season? Absolutely not,” Barty commented.

“The sun will come up tomorrow. We go about our work again. You’re either winning or your learning. I think today is a massive learning curve for me, for Tyz (coach Craig Tyzzer), my team as well.

“We take the positives out of it, without doubt and don’t let this particular match, this particular hour of tennis deter us from what we’re trying to do.”

The Czech player will face USA’s Jennifer Brady (22) after she defeated Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Brady reached the semifinals at the 2020 US Open. For Brady to reach the semis is more impressive considering she was part of the hard lockdown group.

In a quarterfinal match between world no. 2 Simona Halep and the world no. 11 Serena Williams we saw Serena at the top of her game.

Serena who is chasing a slice of history as she looks to equal Margaret Court’s 24 grand slam singles titles was too strong for Halep winning 6-3, 6-3.

Embed from Getty Images

Serena took a 2-0 lead after breaking the Romanian in the second game after hitting four winners.

After so many winners in the previous game it was unforced errors that saw Serena immediately give back the break.

Halep would hold for 2-2, followed by a hold for Serena.

In the sixth game, a game that lasted for 6:27, it was Serena that came out on top to break to lead 4-2. From there players would hold easily and Serena claimed the set in 36 minutes.

“I feel like I needed to have a good performance today, especially after my last match against her,” Williams said. “So it was really important to try to play well today. … I knew I couldn’t play worse [than last time]. So that was a good thing.”

In the pre-match analysis on Channel 9 they showed how much more effective Serena has been when chasing shots wide of the sidelines.

This was on display again in this match as Serena chased down balls that last year she would not get a racquet on. Not only was Serena hitting the ball back she was hitting winners or forcing errors from Halep.

“Movement has always been one of my strengths, and so it’s actually more natural for me to move than for me not. So it was just kind of like, Oh, that’s how I used to move. I’m happy that I’m doing that again and that I put it back into my game. I think I was more focused on other things and not focused on something that is actually a strength of mine, has always been a strength of mine, and I had to refocus on that.”

Halep was fighting for her survival in the second set and it took another long game just to hold serve in the opening game.

Halep would break Serena in the second game to jump out to a 2-0 lead only to give up the break in the next game.

Again Halep would break, but again Serena straight back straight away.

Halep was up 3-1 but she would not win another game in the match to see Serena take the win 6-3, 6-3.

Serena Williams advanced to a semifinal match against Naomi Osaka. They last met in a quarterfinal in Toronto where Serena won in straight sets.

Osaka famously defeated Serena in the 2018 US Open final and that followed a round of 128 win over Serena at the 2018 Miami tournament.

Australia’s Ash Barty has advanced to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open for the third straight year after a 6-3, 6-4 defeat of USA’s world no. 57 Shelby Rogers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_sZGEmt6jU

The two had met a bit over a week ago at the Yarra Valley Classic in the quarterfinals. It took a match tiebreaker for the world no. 1 to get past Rogers on that occasion.

Embed from Getty Images

Barty was looking sharp in her match in an empty Rod Laver Arena. She opened with a comfortable service hold.

A string of unforced errors as Barty faced the opening game from Rogers saw the American hold to love.

Barty is brilliant at breaking down her opponents.

In the fourth game Barty started with a forehand winner to put the pressure on her opponent. A backhand unforced error from Rogers further added to the enormity of the moment.

Barty had a look at two break points at 15-40 after a backhand unforced error from Rogers but the first was saved with a 166 kmh Ace.

On the next point the 18th shot was hit for a winner by Barty for her to take the first break of the match. Barty held the next game to extend her lead to 4-1.

In the seventh game the 175cm (5 ft. 9 in) American looked to hit back when she secured a break point at 30-40 after hitting a forehand winner.

A backhand unforced error saw that opportunity slip away only to have another look, after a backhand winner.

An unplayable serve followed by an Ace took Barty to game point before another winner from the racquet of Rogers.

A Barty winner negated that opportunity before the Australian would finally hold for 5-2 after a backhand unforced error by the American.

Both players held serve Barty had secured the first set 6-3 after 29 minutes.

Barty was in control. Her serve was well placed and putting pressure on Rogers. The Barty backhand slice is one of the best and her improved forehand adds to her arsenal.

Rogers and Barty held to get the second set started. In the third game, two unforced errors from Rogers saw her fall behind 0-30. Rogers got to 15-30 before another unforced error from Rogers took Barty to 15-40.

Rogers would force two forehand errors from the world no. 1 to move to deuce only to make back-to-back unforced errors to concede the game.

Barty would hold to consolidate the break and then repeat the break and hold to lead 5-1.

Rogers held to stay in the match and it was expected that Barty would serve out to claim her third quarterfinal spot at the Australian Open in three years.

It was not to happen like that despite Barty holding two match points at 40-15. A double fault saw the first one wasted.

A forced error and two unforced errors saw Barty drop serve for the first time in the match.

Rogers would hold serve to again force the Australian to serve for the match.

This time Barty was not letting another opportunity slip as she won the game to love.

It was the 21 winners to 14 and 16 unforced errors to 25 that helped Barty take the win.

Barty setup a quarterfinal match against Czech player Karolina Muchova the 25th seed.

“I knew it was going to be vital to serve well tonight. That was something I really wanted to try and focus on, just to try and give myself a chance to be in control of more points,” Barty said.

“Obviously it’s exciting to be in another quarterfinal of a Grand Slam, particularly here in Australia,” Barty said.

“The start that we have had so far is really encouraging, but certainly not satisfied with where we’re at at the moment. We will keep chipping away and keep trying to do the right things to progress as far as we can.”

Muchova again had to overcome a big deficit in a set. In the previous round she recovered from 0-5 in the second set against country woman Karolina Pliskova.

In her round four match Muchova was down 0-4 and 2-5 in the opening set against the 18th seed Elise Mertens.

With Mertens serving for the first set she was broken to love. She again failed to serve out the set at 5-4.

The surging Muchova went on to win four straight games to lead 6-5. Mertens would hold to see the players into a tiebreaker.

Muchova took the breaker and then broke in the first game of the second set. Mertens broke back for 2-2 only to again drop serve in the 11th game to give her opponent the chance to serve out the match.

The 24-year-old Czech served two Aces to open the game before serving out to love to take the match.

Barty leads the H2H 1-0 after a Round of 32 win at the 2018 US Open.

2019 Australian Open champion and the 2020 US Open champion Naomi Osaka has survived two match points when serving at 3-5 against the 2020 Australian Open runner-up Garbine Muguruza.

In each set whoever broke first would lose the set. Osaka breaking in the second game of the first set.

Muguruza breaking in the first game of the second set and again Muguruza broke first in the third set taking the fifth game to lead 3-2.

In the first set Osaka had too many unforced errors with 14 to 6.

Osaka improved a bit in the second set with 11 unforced errors which she also had in the third set. The key was that after facing match points she did not hit another unforced error, over that same stretch Muguruza hit five.

When it mattered most with the Spaniard serving to stay in the match she just could not match Osaka. There was a forced error followed by three unforced errors as Osaka broke to love.

The 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 win sees Osaka into the quarterfinals for the second time after winning the 2019 title.

Embed from Getty Images

“I feel like today I didn’t know what to expect because I’d never played her before, but I just knew it was going to be tough,” Osaka said.

“I feel like I was a bit intimidated because I knew that she was playing really well coming into this match. For me I feel like in the stressful points I just had to go within myself.

“I know today I probably hit a lot of unforced errors, but it was something I probably needed to do because I couldn’t really give her any short balls because she’d finish it.”

The no. 3 seed will face Su-Wei Hsieh who became the oldest female to reach a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal for the first time. Hsieh defeated Marketa Vondrousova (19) 6-4, 6-2.

Hsieh is the world no. 1 doubles player and is ranked at no. 71 in singles. It was her fourth round four match across her Grand Slam career. Hsieh had reached round four at the Australian Open in 2008 and 2018 as well as a round four appearance at the 2018 US Open.

Osaka leads the H2H 4-1.

Ash Barty is the lone Australian remaining in a singles draw at the Australian Open.

Barty defeated Russia’s top ranked player Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 6-4.

Embed from Getty Images

de Minaur was not able to advance past Italy’s Fabio Fognini, losing 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.

Barty came back from a break down in both sets. She lost the opening game of the match and was also broken in the fifth game of the second set.

The world no. 1 was putting pressure on the Russian with her backhand slice shots.

In both sets Barty broke back a few games after being broken herself and then she would mount the pressure and break again.

Next up for Barty is a rematch against Shelby Rogers who she beat just last week.

The match was played without a crowd. Barty described playing in the empty stadium as “very strange” after the match. 

“It changes the sound of the court a little bit,” she explained. 

“Something I’ve never experienced before ever in my life, so it’s very strange.
 
“We had to have a bit of a chat about it with my team obviously just to prepare and try to be ready for anything, but I didn’t want it to affect the way I played tonight. I didn’t want it to affect how I went about my business.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9HTCnF_qxA

Italy’s Fabio Fognini was too good for Australia’s Alex de Minaur defeating him in three sets.

Fognini did however fade late in the match and almost let the Australian back into the match after holding a two break advantage and serving for the match at 5-2.

de Minaur would break and then hold for Fognini to attempt to serve out the match for a second time.

It was 30-30 and de Minuar had a golden opportunity to have a look at a break point however a costly error instead gave his opponent the match point.

This time Fognini was able to close it out.

Fognini was very impressive up to the 5-2 game in the third set. He hit 25 winners to 13.

The Italian now faces Rafael Nadal in the fourth round.

Novak Djokovic looked to be cruising to another win at the Australian Open as he chases a ninth title at Melbourne Park.

That all seemed to come unstuck when he slipped on the Melbourne logo at the back of the court.

Embed from Getty Images

The defending champion took time out for an injury treatment.

On his return to the court the world no. 1 was not rotating through his shots and his serve had dropped 10 km/h in average speed.

At the time of his injury, Djokovic was up two sets but then Fritz would come back into the match winning the next two.

It would looking ominous for the defending champion but he found a way to lift and in the sixth game he got a break of serve. From there he powered home to a famous victory.

The match had started with a crowd in the stadium but at 11:30 pm they were forced to head home.

As Djokovic secured the win he let out an almighty roar.

Speaking after the match he was not sounding confident of even taking to the court for his round four clash with Milos Raonic, a player he holds an 11-0 record.

“I don’t know if I’ll manage to recover from that in less than two days,” he said of the injury. “I don’t know.  I don’t know if I’m gonna step out onto the court or not.

“I was just trying to focus on what’s going on with an injury. Right now, I know it’s a muscle tear,” admitted the top seed

Australia’s Nick Kyrgios had the joint jumping in John Cain Arena on day 5.

News came through earlier in the day about a Stage 4 lockdown in Victoria. It will initially run for five days which means no crowds.

Kyrgios came out firing breaking world no. 3 Dominic Thiem in the opening game of the match. He held serve to consolidate the break.

Both players would hold serve from that moment which saw Kyrgios take the first set 6-4.

Kyrgios would get a key break in the ninth game of the second set and then hold serve to take a commanding 2-0 lead.

Thiem was now thinking how to breakdown the big serving Australian. He started hitting with more topspin from way back near the backstops.

“One thing I noticed about him maybe two sets to love down, he was always positive, he didn’t show any negative emotion,” said Kyrgios. “He knew there was along way to go in that match.”

Embed from Getty Images

Thiem tightened his service games to keep the pressure on Kyrgios and he won six consecutive service games to love across the third and fourth sets.

Kyrgios could have sent the Austrian home early. He had two break points in the opening game of the third set. A forced error and an unforced error saw the opportunities slip away.

The 2020 US Open champion showed when he won that title that he can fight back from a tough position, he did that again against the Australian.

Thiem broke for the first time in the second game of the third set and then just did not give Kyrgios a chance to break back.

In the fourth set Kyrgios had to fight off break points in the opening game, a game that last just over 11 minutes.

In the ninth game Thiem would earn three break points and he converted to serve for the set. Kyrgios just cannot keep his showman antics in the bag and played a questionable shot at a key moment.

With Kyrgios fighting hard to break back he did have a look at a break point at 30-40 but Thiem forced an error to save that point. The Austrian got the key service hold to level the match at 2-2.

With the match on the line Kyrgios started showing more energy and he held the opening game of the fifth set to love.

Thiem won his game just dropping a point. Another love service hold kept the Australian in front, but Thiem also showed he was not giving in easily as he held to love for 2-2.

The defining moment came in the seventh game when Thiem started hitting winners to pile on the pressure. He earned a breakpoint with a backhand winner but could not convert.

Thiem had another break point and this time saw a backhand error from Kyrgios hand the world no. 3 the game.

He showed Kyrgios that it was not going to be easy to break back as he held to love to consolidate the break.

Another hold from Kyrgios then saw the Austrian serving to move into the next round.

The best Kyrgios could do was reach 30-30 before a forced error and then a trademark Thiem backhand winner sealed the deal.

“Since US Open I know that impossible is nothing,” Thiem told Jim Courier on court after his win.

“He’s a heck of a player, he’s very composed, he’s so disciplined,” noted Kyrgios.

Kyrgios is teaming with fellow Aussie and close friend Thanasi Kokkinakis. They play their first-round match Saturday in a delayed match.

“I’m going to come with my head held high tomorrow, play some doubles,” Kyrgios said.

“(Then we’ll) see what tennis I’ll play this year. If I can continue to perform like that, I’m sure that the results will follow.”

Thiem hit 57 winners to 52 from Kyrgios but the key stat was the 28 unforced errors from Thiem and 47 from his opponent.

This was a high quality match with plenty of drama and a fitting send out for what could be the last big crowd of the 2021 Australian Open.