LONDON – Naomi Osaka might be more comfortable on grass courts these days but she will once again leave Wimbledon in the third round after a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 loss to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Friday.
Osaka is a former No. 1 now ranked 50th and a four-time Grand Slam champion, all on hard courts — she won the U.S. Open and Australian Open twice apiece.
Osaka arrived at the All England Club this year having lost three of her last four matches at the place and with a career record of 5-4 there. Her best showing was getting to the third round in 2017 and 2018; she missed the tournament in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
From 4-all in the third set, Pavluchenkova grabbed eight of the match’s last 10 points, holding at love, then breaking in the final game with the help of a trio of forehand unforced errors by Osaka.
“A majority of you were cheering for Naomi, but that’s OK,” Pavlyuchenkova, who turned 34 on Thursday, told the crowd at Court No. 2. “I’m mentally tough, so that didn’t bother me at all. The opposite: It gave me energy.”
Pavlyuchenkova, who is ranked 53rd, was the 2021 runner-up at the French Open, and Friday’s victory moved her into the fourth round at Wimbledon for the first time since she was a quarterfinalist nine years ago.
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