Naomi Osaka stuns Jelena Ostapenko, reaches Montréal fourth round

Naomi Osaka stormed into the fourth round of the Omnium Banque Nationale, knocking out former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko, 6-2, 6-4.

The former world No. 1 had to save two match points to defeat No. 13 seed Liudmila Samsonova in the second round and scored another upset on Friday, planting the No. 22 seed in one hour and 72 minutes on Center Court.

Osaka improved to 3-0 in her head-to-head with Ostapenko, having beaten the Latvian in the first round of the 2024 US Open last summer.

Osaka has been in search of the hard-court form that took her to four Grand Slam titles on the surfaces, and may have found it this week in Montréal alongside trail coach Tomasz Wiktorowski. Osaka hired the longtime coach of former No. 1 Iga Swiatek following her split with Patrick Mouratoglou last week.

Playing in Montréal for the first time since 2018, Osaka was coming off a disappointing loss at the Mubadala Citi DC Open to Emma Raducanu but has turned things around up north with three straight victories to reach the Round of 16.

Ostapenko was playing her first tournament of the US Open swing, having lost in the first round of Wimbledon to home favorite Sonay Kartal; she needed three sets to defeat Renata Zarazua in her opening round and quickly fell behind against Osaka.

The Japanese star raced through the opening set in 30 minutes flat, breaking the Ostapenko serve three times to give her the early edge.

Osaka continued to play locked-in tennis as the second set got underway, shaking off a mid-set break to race ahead, 5-2. She served for the match in the following game and held a match point, but Ostapenko saved it and threatened to get the match back on serve.

It turned out to only be a temporary respite for Ostapenko, who netted a forehand to hand Osaka three more match points, and the 27-year-old only needed one more as Ostapenko missed a final backhand to end the match in just over an hour.

In all, Osaka played a clean match with 14 winners to 13 unforced errors, while Ostapenko struck a whoppoing 37 errors to just 17 winners.

Up next for Osaka is former world No. 11 Anastasija Sevastova, who dethroned defending champion and No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula in a three-set victory in the third round.