Roland Garros<\/a> title two weeks later.<\/p>\nIt was Osaka\u2019s first French Open since her comeback after time away from the sport due to pregnancy, and her history at the tournament, rustiness, and draw set the odds firmly against her.<\/p>\n
The result was straightforward. The path there was not.<\/p>\n
Swiatek won the first set in a tiebreak, but Osaka responded with a shocking 6-1 second set, sending the match to a decider. There, Osaka continued her momentum and went up a break, and she eventually had the chance to serve out the match at 5-3. Swiatek was the top seed and defending champion\u2014it would have been the biggest upset of the tournament.<\/p>\n
It was a tense game. Up 30-15, Osaka had the chance to hit a forehand winner into the open court, but instead missed it into the net. She had to save a break point at 30-40. And, with the advantage, Osaka had a match point.<\/p>\n
But Swiatek saved it, and won four games in a row to win the match. Osaka went out in the second round, another early French Open exit on her record. But what that doesn\u2019t show is just how close she was to a breakthrough.<\/p>\n
Finding Her Stride<\/h4>\n
Two years later, Osaka once again lost to the top seed at the French Open. It wasn\u2019t as close as her loss to Swiatek, ending in straight sets, but it came in the fourth round after three quality wins.<\/p>\n
In the first two rounds, the 16th-seeded Osaka defeated Laura Siegemund and Donna Vekic in straight sets, two dangerous unseeded players who Osaka may not have been able to fend off in past years.<\/p>\n
The third round was tougher as Osaka faced 17th seed Iva Jovic, an up-and-coming player who can be competitive in any matchup. The two traded tiebreak sets, and in the third it was Osaka who snatched victory in the final moments. She pulled through a difficult match against a high-quality player, and advanced to her first-ever French Open fourth round.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t the lost match against Iga Swiatek. It wasn\u2019t the later rounds Osaka is accustomed to at hardcourt Slams. On paper it was just a third-round win, but for Osaka, it was a milestone that took 10 years of Roland Garros appearances to reach.<\/p>\n
She had a chance to extend her run against No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka, but Osaka couldn\u2019t find her footing when it mattered. Still, Osaka kept the match competitive to the end, with the 7-5 6-3 scoreline unreflective of just how much she pushed Sabalenka.<\/p>\n
<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\nThe match was important for more than just Osaka and Sabalenka–it was just the fifth time a women\u2019s match was granted the French Open night session slot, and the first since 2023. High quality was expected, and as the underdog Osaka was under the most pressure in that regard. And for the whole match, Osaka\u2019s level was high.<\/p>\n
Naomi Osaka still hasn\u2019t reached the highs of her hard court Grand Slam runs on clay or grass, but at this year\u2019s French Open she only expanded on the potential that\u2019s always been in her game.<\/p>\n
Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to Naomi Osaka\u2019s Grand Slam results, there\u2019s a large discrepancy between hard courts and natural surfaces. Osaka has four Grand Slam titles: two at the Australian Open and two at the US Open. She also has a US Open semifinal run and fourth round results in both. But, heading into the 2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5769,"featured_media":67642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,9,4],"tags":[43702,1766,1248,4315,42396,460,476],"class_list":["post-106024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-french-open","category-news","category-wta","tag-2026-french-open","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-donna-vekic","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-iva-jovic","tag-laura-siegemund","tag-naomi-osaka"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5769"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106024"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106027,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106024\/revisions\/106027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}