ASB Classic 2025: Naomi Osaka into first semi-final since 2022 before rain cancels rest of play

Naomi Osaka will have the upperhand on the other players who are into the latter stages of the ASB Classic in Auckland on Saturday after winning the only match that took place today to reach the semi-finals.

Madison Keys and Clara Tauson were facing off and it was 4-6, 4-3 so the top seed was making some semblance of a comeback before it got rained off. While Katie Volynets and Alycia Parks had yet to take to the court. Winners of both matches likely have to play twice tomorrow to set up Sunday's final.

While Osaka beat unseeded Hailey Baptiste 6-7, 6-1, 6-2 in another confidence boosting win in her best run since her return. The hard work is finally starting to pay off for the former World No.1 who has shown glimmers but not strung a run together. In particular in the Asian swing she looked great but got injured while leading Coco Gauff.

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But back on court with her new coach Patrick Mouratoglou, it has paid dividends this week. "I put a lot of work in throughout last year and even though the results didn't show it, I'm just continuing to try as hard as I can to see where it gets me," Osaka said. "The key focus again today was just to have a lot of belief and confidence in myself."

She failed to find rhythm to start with a narrow set loss but her powerful game was unearthed over the next two as she hit nine aces and Baptiste also seemed to struggle with injury as she was easily beaten from there.

"She's an amazing player, it sucks that she was injured but I think we played a really high-quality match," continued Osaka. "In a weird way I'm glad to play a three-set match because I think that's the kind of experience that I need."

She also gets the added bonus of playing either Volynets or Parks as while Keys and Tauson likely have one more set in them, the American duo haven't even started.

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