N/A
Naomi Osaka headlined the stars in action as the second round of the women's singles tournament got underway at the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Top-seeded Ash Barty already crashed out in the first round, with No. 11 Jennifer Brady and No. 12 Elise Mertens also coming up short in their opening matches.
Osaka, Garbine Muguruza and Aryna Sabalenka couldn't afford to take their opponents lightly Monday.
Women's Singles Results: July 26
No. 2 Naomi Osaka def. Viktorija Golubic 6-3, 6-2
No. 7 Garbine Muguruza def. Wang Qiang 6-3, 6-0
No. 8 Barbora Krejcikova def. Leylah Annie Fernandez 6-2, 6-4
No. 13 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Anna-Lena Friedsam 6-1, 6-1
No. 14 Maria Sakkari def. Nina Stojanovic 6-1, 6-2
No. 15 Elena Rybakina def. Rebecca Peterson 6-2, 6-3
Camila Giorgi def. Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-1
Belinda Bencic def. Misaki Doi 6-2, 6-4
Sara Sorribes Tormo def. Fiona Ferro 6-1, 6-4
Nadia Podoroska def. Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-1, 6-3
Marketa Vondrousova def. Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-1, 6-2
Donna Vekic def. Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (3)
Alison Van Uytvanck def. Petra Kvitova 5-7, 6-3, 6-0
Elina Svitolina def. Ajla Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
Monday Recap
Osaka wasn't at her best but didn't encounter much trouble putting away Viktorija Golubic.
The two exchanged serves for the first seven games of the opening set before Osaka earned a critical break to go up 5-3. The The four-time Grand Slam champion then broke Golubic twice early in the second frame to take a commanding 4-0 lead.
The Japan native dropped eight points on serve over the course of the match. She collected three aces and 22 groundstroke winners.
Having withdrawn from the French Open and Wimbledon, the 23-year-old isn't lacking for sharpness in Tokyo.
Muguruza and 14th-seeded Maria Sakkari were similarly dominant in their outings.
Wang Qiang provided some resistance for Muguruza in the first set and battled back to within a game of the Spaniard at 3-4. But she dropped serve in the next game, which began a streak of eight straight games for Muguruza.
Wang committed eight unforced errors and won eight points over the second set as she fell apart.
Likewise, Nina Stojanovic was her own worst enemy against Sakkari. Committing 30 unforced errors and five double-faults in two sets won't get it done against an opponent as good as the 26-year-old Greek.
Sakkari took a 4-1 lead in the first set thanks to a break in the fourth game. The two needed 15 points to determine the sixth game, which ended in another break of serve as Sakkari took firm control.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova made quick work of Anna-Lena Friedsam, sending the German packing in 54 minutes.
Friedsam only had five unforced errors but was simply overpowered by the 30-year-old Russian. Pavlyuchenkova had nine forehand winners and two on her backhand. She also collected three aces and won 21 of her 26 first-serve points.
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic's straight-set victory over Hugo Dellien highlighted the first round of men's singles tennis action at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Day 1 featured 16 matches. Other notable winners included World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev, who earned a second-set tiebreaker victory en route to defeating Alexander Bublik.
Elsewhere, Sumit Nagal made history as the first Indian man to win an Olympics men's singles match in 25 years, while Marin Cilic won a three-set thriller over Joao Menezes after finally pulling through following his 11th match point.
Here's a look at the day's round of 64 results alongside closer looks at all four of those performances.
Round of 64 Results
Daniil Medvedev (Russian Olympic Committee) def. Alexander Bublik (Kazakhstan): 6-4, 7-6 (8)
Novak Djokovic (Serbia) def. Hugo Dellien (Bolivia): 6-2, 6-2
Lorenzo Sonego (Italy) def. Taro Daniel (Japan): 4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3)
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina (Spain) def. Pedro Sousa (Portugal): 6-3, 6-0
Aslan Karatsev (Russian Olympic Committee) def. Tommy Paul (United States): 6-3, 6-2
Pablo Carreno Busta (Spain) def. Tennys Sandgren (United States): 7-5, 6-2
Fabio Fognini (Italy) def. Yuichi Sugita (Japan): 6-4, 6-3
Marin Cilic (Croatia) def. Joao Menezes (Brazil): 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (7)
Nikoloz Basilashvili (Georgia) def. Roberto Carballes Baena (Spain): 6-3, 6-2
Ugo Humbert (France) def. Pablo Andujar (Spain): 7-6 (3), 6-1
Jan-Lennard Struff (Germany) def. Thiago Montero (Brazil): 6-3, 6-4
Miomir Kecmanovic (Serbia) def. Kamil Majchrzak (Poland): 6-4, 6-2
Jeremy Chardy (France) def. Tomas Barrios (Chile): 6-1, 7-6 (4)
Egor Gerasimov (Belarus) def. Gilles Simon (France): 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
John Millman (Australia) def. Lorenzo Musetti (Italy): 6-3, 6-4
Sumit Nagal (India) def. Denis Istomin (Uzbekistan): 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-4
All tennis results can be found on the Olympics website.
Highlights
Djokovic didn't have much trouble in his first-round match en route to the 6-2, 6-2 win over Dellien, who relished the moment against the 20-time major winner and potential Golden Slam victor:
Djokovic needed just one hour and one minute to advance to the Round of 32, where he will face Jan-Lennard Struff.
The Serbian is aiming to become just the second person in tennis history to win all four Grand Slam events plus an Olympic gold medal in the same year. Steffi Graf accomplished the feat in 1988.
Medvedev worked much harder for his Round 1 victory, needing a second-set tiebreaker to earn the straight-set win. But he'll be moving on after the 6-4, 7-6 (8) victory over Alexander Bublik.
This was not an easy win, as Jose Morgado of the Diario Record noted:
Medvedev won the first set 6-4, winning a break point in the first game and cruising from there. Bublik fired back in the second set, winning an early break point and taking a 3-0 game edge.
Undeterred, Medvedev fought back and eventually forced a tiebreaker after his ace tied the second set at six games apiece. The tiebreaker was a seesaw affair, which the Russian won 10-8.
Medvedev now faces Sumit Nagal, who made some history on Saturday.
It had been 25 years since an Indian man won an Olympics men's singles match at the Olympics, but that cold spell has been broken after Nagal's three-set win over Denis Istomin:
Nagal won the first set 6-4 and served for the match up 5-4 in the second set, but a pair of double faults led to Istomin winning the break. Istomin ended up forcing a tiebreaker, which he won 8-6.
Nagal dug deep late in the third set, though. Istomin had triple game point serving with the score tied at four, but Nagal earned five straight points for the huge break. He then won four of five points in the final game for the win.
The last Indian man to win was Leander Paes, who engineered a phenomenal run into the semifinals as a wild card at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He lost to eventual gold medalist Andre Agassi in the semifinals but defeated Fernando Meligeni in the bronze-medal match.
Paes and Nagal are the only two Indian men to reach the second round of the Olympic men's singles tournament.
The match of the day occurred between Cilic and Menezes.
Cilic appeared as if he would cruise into the second round after he found himself up 5-0 in the third set. A win appeared to be even more of a formality when Menezes fell behind 40-0 while serving.
However, Menezes somehow survived five match points to stay alive and win the game. He proceeded to win six straight games, taking a 6-5 lead to earn an opportunity to serve for the match.
He earned his own match point up 40-30, but Cilic bounced back with three straight points to earn the tiebreaker.
Once there, Cilic earned the 9-7 win, getting the victory on his 11th match point.
He'll take on Pablo Carreno Busta in Round 2.
Naomi Osaka, arguably the best women's tennis player in the world, was all set to represent Japan when the 2020 Olympics kicked off in Tokyo this summer. Now she's among those praising the decision to postpone the Games until next year.
As the coronavirus pandemic continues to challenge the sports world in unprecedented ways, Osaka published an Instagram post detailing her feelings on recent events.
"I've been thinking about how to articulate my thoughts on this for a couple of days now, so here goes," Osaka wrote. "Everyone knows how much the Olympics means to me and how proud I will be to participate in my home country. Of course I am disappointed that it won't happen this year, but we'll all be ready to go stronger than ever in 2021."
Osaka, who was raised in New York by a Japanese mother and Haitian father, decided to give up her American citizenship to represent Japan in 2020.
Now that's on pause, but it hasn't made the tennis champ any less proud of the decisions that brought her to this point.
"I support Prime Minister Abe's brave decision and the IOC 100%."Osaka continued. "Sport will eventually unite us again and be there for us always, but that time is not now. This is the time for people from all countries, background and races to rally together to save as many lives as we can. To me, that is the Olympic spirit. To the people of Japan: stay strong, hang in there and let's show the world our beautiful country when the time is right in 2021. Stay safe everyone, take care of each other, be kind and we will make it through."
The 22-year-old star is currently ranked No. 10 in the world with a career record of 222-132 to go with wins at both the US Open (2018) and Australian Open (2019).
