'I had to give my everything after losing the opening set,' Naomi Osaka said

The three-time Major champion and the Gippsland Trophy 2nd seed Naomi Osaka had to work hard to reach the quarter-final on Wednesday, beating Katie Boulter 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Osaka lost serve thrice and raised her level from set number two to remain in contention and avoid an early setback.

"I wanted to fight as hard as I can after losing the opening set. Katie played excellent tennis, and I thought that if I lost at the end of the day, it's okay, but I still wanted to give my best effort. I like playing long matches because I feel like I can gauge the court condition and that my fitness gets better. I played a short match yesterday, so subconsciously, I felt like I needed to play a long match today. I couldn't have asked for a better preparation match.

I think it was very different from my first-round match. I can't practice a match like this. So I'm thrilled with how it went. Even though it was long, I think there are many things that I learned in this match. I felt the entire first set and sort of halfway into the second, I felt like I was on my back foot a lot. I felt like I was letting her dictate most of the balls. For me, I felt like I never really settled.

I think in the second and third set, I was sort of able to find what I needed to do and imposed my pace onto the rally. I was calmer after losing the first set because I felt like I just wanted to play well for myself. The biggest concern for me in the first set was winning or losing. But after not playing that well, I just wanted to compete and hopefully push her to a third. That was my biggest goal in the second, and I was able to do that. I just tried to keep it rolling," Naomi Osaka said.