Naomi Osaka makes winning start at 2021 Roland-Garros

Naomi Osaka made a winning start at the 2021 Roland-Garros defeating Maria Patricia Tig 6-4 7-5.

Naomi Osaka entered the 2021 Roland-Garros creating all the wrong headlines but on Sunday she created a good one. Osaka declined to do press conferences at the French Open to raise awareness of mental health issues and by doing so created quite a commotion on the tour.

However, on Sunday, she created one on the court by defeating Maria Patricia Tig. It was a solid display from Osaka who is not yet comfortable on clay and it shows. Her movement on the surface is far from what it is on other surfaces but it was enough to overcome Tig.

Osaka did not serve well initially committing 3 DF in the first set and hitting her 1st serves only 52 % of times but once she did it was lights out. She dropped only one point on her first serve en route to the 6-4 1st set finish. Tig held her own when she hit her first serve but was abysmal on her 2nd serve allowing Osaka to attack her repeatedly.

The 2nd set was a similar one with Osaka once more dominant on her first serve while Tig played an overall much better set of tennis. She won the majority of points on her serve saving a break point keeping the score tied at 5-5.

Osaka quickly won her next game to make it 6-5 before playing several good rallies to carve out her 2nd break point of the match. This one was a match point as well but Tig saved it. In the end, we ended up in a tiebreak where Osaka proved more composed winning 7-4.