Deja Vu for Naomi Osaka, set to face Caroline Garcia again: "I just want to be seeded so I can just stop playing her"

Having played Caroline Garcia three times since her comeback and the duo sat at 1-1, it will be the rubber match of sorts as Naomi Osaka will face the Frenchwoman again on Sunday at the Miami Open. But she joked that she wants to be seeded to avoid her.

Osaka saw off Elina Svitolina 6-2, 7-6(5) on Saturday to join Garcia in the third round after the latter moved through with a walkover against Viktoriya Tomova. Heading into her post match press conference after her impressive win, she voiced her want to return to the seeds as soon as possible and that they have become friends after facing each other so much.

Osaka continues to make steady progress but is far from her wish jokes aside or not yet as she sits within the world's top 200. But with her continued success, it wpm't be long until she returns to that point. She planned to peak at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and is already showing superb signs that the game is coming along nicely in an epic win over Svitolina.

"Man, we're friends at this point. We're just, you know, work buddies. We see each other all the time. It's funny. I just want to be seeded so I can just stop playing her, like," Naomi Osaka said during her post-match press conference.

"She [Caroline Garcia] is an amazing player. I know this. Every match we play is really difficult. It's just going to be interesting playing on these courts because I really like these hard courts."