Naomi Osaka earns first Grand Slam match win since 2022 at Roland Garros

Naomi Osaka earned her first Grand Slam match win in more than two years at Roland Garros on Sunday by holding off an Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

Osaka's two-hour and one-minute win over the 67th-ranked Italian—where she won the last three games after seeing a 4-0 third-set lead evaporate—snapped a four-match losing streak at majors that dated back to the 2022 Australian Open. After missing all of 2023 due to pregnancy and subsequent maternity leave after the July birth of her daughter, Shai, Osaka also lost in the first round of January's Australian Open in her first Grand Slam tournament as a mother.

Playing in Paris for the first time in two years, and entered on a protected ranking due to her maternity leave, the opening hurdle was one that Osaka said she was eager to clear. The 26-year-old arrived in Paris with a 12-9 record so far in her comeback season, including a 4-3 mark on clay—a surface that was once her least favored.

"I think for me I always feel a lot more nervous during the first round of Slams, just because I want to do well so badly, and the first round is the first round, so you kind of almost feel like the tournament didn't even start and you're out if you lose," Osaka said in her pre-event press conference on the eve of the tournament.

"That's for me what I feel. But I think, I don't know, growing up, the Slams were the tournaments that I watched on TV the most. I just want to be here for as long as I can."

If Osaka was feeling nervous, she certainly didn't show it in a 26-minute first set, where she played nearly flawless tennis. Despite only landing 45% of her first serves, Osaka won 80% of the points played behind it. She hit 11 winners to Bronzetti's one, and struck her first ace of the match to win the set.

But the Italian, who broke into the Top 50 last year for the first time after winning her first career WTA singles title on the clay courts of Rabat, Morocco, showed spirit and fight in the second set, in which Osaka's error count nearly doubled from the opener. Bronzetti stayed ahead for the duration of the set, saving two break points at 3-3, and broke Osaka for the first time to send the match to a decider.

Osaka quickly reset in the third set, and broke serve from 30-0 behind in the first game. But again, Bronzetti's fire wasn't easily doused. Trailing 4-0, the Italian saved a break point to get on the board, and won a staggering five straight games as Osaka's error count continued to mount. But an easy hold steadied Osaka, and she earned a fifth and final break of Bronzetti's serve with some help from divine intervention. A correct overrule from the chair umpire gave her 15-30, and on the next point, her groundstroke dribbled over after hitting the net.

And on break point? A gust of wind kicked up a plume of clay into Bronzetti's eyes, and the Italian limply mishit a rally backhand into the net.

After the match, Osaka admitted that the thought of the major milestone she achieved was playing on her mind when she looked on course for an uncomplicated victory.

"I was kind of, in my head, thinking like, you know, I didn't win a match in Australia so I'd really love to win one here. Obviously that was wasn't a good train of thought," she said.

"I kind of focused on it a bit too much instead of trying to play point by point, and I think towards the end I was able to erase that thought from my head.

"But I would love to not have to go through that roller coaster again."

The Japanese star's three-set triumph was also her first win at Roland Garros since 2021, when she was famously embroiled in a public dispute with the tournament after announcing that she would not sit for customary post-match press conferences. She withdrew from the tournament that year prior to her second-round match, citing concerns for her mental health.

Unseeded Osaka, currently ranked No. 134, could next face world No. 1 and three-time Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek in the second round. Swiatek, the top seed, faces French qualifier Leolia Jeanjean on Monday.