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Osaka holding the championship cup
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(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Dong-chan = Osaka Naomi (3rd place, Japan) recaptured the women’s singles hegemony at the Australian Open tennis tournament (A$80 million in total prize money, about 66.8 billion won).
Osaka defeated Jennifer Brady (24th place, USA) 2-0 (6-4 6-3) in the women’s singles final on the 13th of the tournament held in Melbourne, Australia on the 20th.
After returning to the top of the Australian Open in two years following 2019, Osaka won their fourth career in singles in major tournaments following the 2018 and 2020 US Opens. The winning prize is AUD 2.75 million and KRW 2.39 billion in Korean money.
With this victory, Osaka has risen to second place in the world rankings announced on the 22nd.
In addition, since 2018, he has continued to win major tournaments for the last four consecutive years, and has recently become a strong player in women’s tennis, where the winners change every major tournament without any absolute stronghold.
Osaka first broke the opponent’s serve game in the first set and ran to 3-1, immediately giving the serve game and allowing a 3-3 tie.
After that, the power battle that continued until 4-4 was broken due to Brady’s vain mistake.
Brady, who lags behind with a game score of 4-5, gave a deuce with a double-fault after leading 40-15 in his sub-game, and in a situation where the ball hit the net at a forehand smashing opportunity, he lost the first set.
The second set hit 4-0 as soon as Osaka started, pressing Brady in the last set, and finally winning the championship in 1 hour and 17 minutes.
Osaka recently continued their 21st consecutive win streak, and in 30 years after Monica Celes in 1991, they climbed four times in the women’s singles at major tournaments and became a player who won all four.
In addition, he has also increased the record for the most singles wins in major tournaments by Asian nationals.
Outside of Osaka, the only Asian nationals who have reached the top of the singles in major tournaments are Lina (retired, China), the French Open in 2011 and the Australian Open in 2014.
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