Naomi Osaka beat another potentially difficult opponent with relative ease at the Australian Open, dropping just five games in a 6-2, 6-3 win over former top-five player Caroline Garcia.
The U.S. Open champion beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a three-time quarterfinalist at Melbourne Park, 6-1, 6-2 in the first round. The matches lasted just over an hour each.
With her quick matches, third-seeded Osaka has had plenty of spare time in Melbourne, but she admitted after the match she's pretty much just stayed in lockdown.
Her first day in Melbourne after the mandatory quarantine, she said, “I was really excited because you guys get to do stuff unlike in America."
"So I walked around, but then I felt guilty and didn’t know if people were staring at me, so now I just stay in my room and watch Netflix.”
Osaka is on a 16-match win streak, with her last loss coming in a Fed Cup match last February. She has had two walkovers since the WTA Tour resumed in August, including last week before the semifinal of the Gippsland Trophy warm-up tournament.
