For the first time since giving birth in 2023, Japanese professional tennis player Naomi Osaka has reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament at the 2025 Australian Open.
Beating the 20th seed Karolina Muchova in three sets (1-6, 6-1, 6-3), former world no. 1 and current no. 50 in the Women’s Tennis Association ranking, Osaka powered through her second match in Melbourne.
“It was just really difficult from the first point and after the first set I just told myself, ‘Fight for every point and if you beat me 6-1, 6-1 then she’s the greatest player ever.’” The first set unravelled in a little over 30 minutes, prompting spectators to wonder if Osaka is still reeling from an abdominal injury that led her to retire in the Auckland finals — her first finals appearance since 2022 — just over a week ago.
The two-time former Australian Open champion more than made up for the first set upset with an empathic consecutive sets wins over Muchova. Despite missing two match points owing to Muchova’s persistent powerful hitting, Osaka closed out the match in almost two hours.

One key difference she had to make in the second set was to improve her first serves, something she says she’s worked on with her new coach Patrick Mouratoglou, who was previously with Serena Williams. “During the pre-season, I practiced a lot with Patrick just about placement more.”
A Little Revenge
The last time Muchova and Osaka faced each other in a draw was last August at the US Open, where the Czech beat her — and her custom Lolita goth kit by Ambush co-founder and Nike global women‘s curator Yoon Ahn — in straight sets.
“She crushed me in the US Open when I had my best outfit ever,” Osaka said in her signature cheeky manner after her win in Melbourne. “I was so disappointed. I was so mad.”

She adds, “This was my little revenge” before clarifying that revenge is not a bad thing. “Revenge is competitive, you guys.” And so far, her Australian Open run has been about getting back at opponents who previously handed her a loss.
Her prior win against Carolina Garcia proved pivotal as the French player knocked her out of the first round in the 2024 Australian Open. It was a shaky start to Osaka’s bid to regain dominance in Australia’s hard court, having previously won the title twice — in 2019 and 2021.

Despite winning the first set against Garcia, Osaka lost the second, only winning three games, before bouncing back in the third to claim the match. So far, both her Australian Open wins are three-setters; the draw has not necessarily played to her favor being pitted against big hitters like Garcia and Muchova immediately.
She will face the Swiss tennis player Belinda Bencic in the third round on Jan. 17, 2 p.m. Manila time.