Halep survives, Osaka cruises in Australian Open round 2

Simona Halep survived against a very motivated Tomljanovic to move on at the Australian Open where she will be joined by Osaka who eased past Garcia.

Naomi Osaka stepped onto the courts today to face Caroline Garcia for a spot in the 3rd round of the Australian Open. From the start, it was evident she was motivated and feeling good as she was serving well which is key for her. Both players played an aggressive style but Osaka proved better in key points which is what allowed her to take a 3-1 lead before closing it out with 6-2. Osaka had a positive winner-unforced error ratio at 10-8 while Garcia had a negative at 6-8.

It was a similar story in the second set as well but this time around Osaka was even more efficient hitting winners at an even better rate. Her strong serving never gave Garcia an inch and slowly she worked her way towards break points which she used. From there she served out the match closing it with 6-3. Overall a very good performance from Osaka who looked sharper than in the previous round winning in just over an hour against a tricky opponent.

It started great for Halep who broke Tomljanovic in the opening game to take a 2-0 lead. Ajla finally arrived in the match and completely turned it around taking a 4-2 lead before Simona tied it at 4-4. It wouldn't matter much as Tomljanovic won the next two games sealing the first set 6-4. It was a very up and down set from both players but the key was the abysmal play of Halep on her 2nd serve where she won only 4 of 20 points. Both played aggressively posting a negative winner to unforced errors ratio.

The 2nd set started with more up and down players from both as the first four games on the set were won by the receiving player. After that Simona settled in nicely breaking Ajla once more and winning the 2nd set 6-4. She posted a positive winner-error ratio while Tomljanovic posted a negative and that proved key. The final set was another up and down one with Halep once again struggling. She found herself down 5-2 but rose like a phoenix in time to avoid facing match points.

She eventually tied it up at 5-5 before breaking Tomljanovic once more to take a 6-5 lead which she turned to a 7-5 comeback victory. A close call for Halep but she will be glad that she found a way to win a match she was down for the majority of the time.