MIAMI – Naomi Osaka’s eyes welled with tears when her match ended, an all-too-familiar scene for her in recent years. These were of the happy variety. For the former world No. 1, that’s major progress.
The unseeded Osaka defeated No. 22 Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Miami Open semi-finals. She’s in a championship match for the first time since the 2021 Australian Open, and will meet either No. 16 Jessica Pegula or No. 2 Iga Swiatek on Saturday.
“Damn, I’m almost crying,” Osaka said according to AP.
Maybe not even almost. She hid her face in an orange towel a few times right after the match ended, at least one tear clearly making its way down her right cheek.
Osaka entered this tournament ranked No. 77 in the world, will leave Miami no worse than 36th and would be back in the top 30 if she wins the title.
It has been a long, trying and often emotional ride for Osaka since her win in the 2018 US Open final over Serena Williams.
She was rattled during a loss at Indian Wells on March 12 following a derogatory shout from a spectator, withdrew from last year´s French Open to address her mental state and left last year´s US Open in tears.
But in South Florida, one of the places she considers home, it’s been all support from the fans.
“From the bottom of my heart, thank you,” Osaka told them in her on-court interview.
Osaka came into the semi-finals nearly impenetrable on serve this fortnight, holding 35 out of 36 times in her four previous matches in the event. Bencic, though, broke Osaka four times in a valiant attempt to extend her winning streak against the former top-ranked player.
With her current ranking of World No.77, Osaka is now the lowest-ranked Miami Open finalist, a record previously held by Kim Clijsters when she won the title in 2005 ranked No.38.
Osaka is projected to move to around No.36 in next week’s rankings after reaching the final, and could return to the Top 30 with the title.
Bencic took the first break of the day when she fired two straight blistering backhand returns to lead 2-1. A second break and a commanding 4-1 lead came Bencic’s way, and although Osaka clawed one break back, Bencic held on to claim the one-set lead.
But after dropping her first set of the event, Osaka came back strong in the second set. Osaka used a forehand winner to break for 4-2, and she leveled the match from there, causing Bencic to lose her first set of the tournament. Osaka had 16 winners to just seven unforced errors in the second set.
Both players fought through tough service games where they each saved multiple break points early in the decider, but Osaka cracked open the third set with a break for 3-2 via another forehand winner.
Meanwhile, Daniil Medvedev came into the tournament as the No. 2-ranked men’s player in the world. Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz ensured he will stay there.
Hurkacz – the No. 8 seed and defending Miami champion – wore down the top-seeded and cramp-riddled Medvedev 7-6 (7), 6-3 in a men´s quarter-final.
“Every muscle just went `cramp, cramp, cramp, cramp,'” Medvedev said.
Had Medvedev prevailed, he would have overtaken Novak Djokovic on Monday and returned to No. 1 in the world rankings. Instead, the Russian will stay No. 2 in the world and find out who wins the Miami title on Sunday like everyone else.
“For me, it was more important in a way just to win the match itself than to become No. 1,” Medvedev said. “Winning the match, I saw it more as a bonus.”
Hurkacz, who is from Poland, will next meet either No. 14 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain or unseeded Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia in the semi-finals.
“I was returning pretty well, I was putting some pressure on his serves and that was helping my game,” Hurkacz said. “I was able to get some free points on my serve and that was pretty big.”
The other semifinal pits sixth-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway against unseeded Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina.
Hurkacz has played Medvedev four times, and Medvedev has been ranked No. 2 in the world in each of those meetings – which they´ve now split. Hurkacz improved to 14-5 this year, and his record in Miami is 12-1 all-time.
“Coming here is so much fun,” Hurkacz said.
In the second set, Hurkacz broke on his sixth attempt in a marathon, 11-minute fifth game as the sweltering temperature seemed to get the better of Medvedev.
Sitting on his bench after the seventh game, the US Open champion removed his sweat-drenched shirt and requested assistance from the physio, complaining of dizziness.
“All the match I was not feeling my best,” Medvedev explained to reporters. “After the tough points, I felt that my breath was not recovering fast enough.”
In the following game, Medvedev hunched over momentarily and later glumly dropped his racket to the court after he whacked a backhand return into the net.
Eighth-seeded Hurkacz’s win sets up a meeting with either Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic or Spanish teenage phenomenon Carlos Alcaraz, who reached the US Open quarter-finals last year.
“Playing Daniil is always fun but it’s super competitive,” Hurkacz said in a broadcast interview after the match.
“I was hitting my forehand a little better and I was returning better so that was big for me.”
Medvedev needed to reach the semi-finals to retake the world number one spot from Novak Djokovic. The Australian Open finalist claimed the position briefly earlier this year but lost it after a shock third-round loss at Indian Wells.
“To be honest, I played a lot of matches where I had the pressure, different one, and it’s not like something new happened today in terms of like going out on court and feeling crazy tight or something,” he said according to Reuters.
“So I don’t think that nerves were part of this.”
