Naomi Osaka, winner in 2018 but fell to 78th place in the world, advanced to the second round of the WTA 1000 tournament in Indian Wells, defeating American Sloane Stephens 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, on Thursday in her desert California. .
In the main stadium, swept by a fairly strong and swirling wind, the Japanese took a set to adapt, showing a good fighting spirit if not completely reconnected with its best level, the one that has plagued it for many months with mental anxiety problems.
“This victory means a lot to me. It’s been a long time since I played in such difficult conditions. But I felt that I was fighting both for my survival and against Sloane, in this rather crazy wind “, he reacted warmly on the floor, to a loud applause from the audience.
Osaka, which won the last set with six games in a row and is 2-0 behind, is looking for its 8th WTA title, more than thirteen months after the last one at the Australian Open.
Since then, he has had a string of bad performances, cracking under pressure, either in front of the press at Roland-Garros or at the US Open last year, where he was ruled out early.
She then took a few months off before returning to Melbourne in January, where she was unable to retain her Major title, which was eliminated in the third round.
At Indian Wells, where she won the first tournament of her career four years ago, Osaka is trying to return to the top. Her course will compete with the Russian Veronika Kudermetova in the 2nd round.
Victory Fernandez in the double
In the doubles, Quebec Leylah Annie Fernandez and her French partner Alizé Cornet won their first round.
The Fernandez-Cornet duo defeated Australia’s Samantha Stosur and China’s Zhang Shuai 1-6, 7-6, 10-8.
Stosur and Shuai were the second seeds in the draw.
The young Fernandez, who just won the second title of the WTA Tour, will compete in the single on Saturday.
In another match, Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and Mexican partner Giuliana Olmos defeated Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic and Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-2.
