Martina Navratilova picks the female player who has impressed her most at Wimbledon this year
Naomi Osaka produced one of her best-ever performances to dispatch Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets in the fourth round of Wimbledon.
Osaka overpowered Sabalenka on Centre Court as she rushed to a 6-2, 7-6 victory against the World No 1, subsequently ending her terrific streak of winning tie-breaks in the process.
The Japanese star has had an inconsistent time of it over the last few years, but she’s achieved her best-ever performances at Roland Garros and Wimbledon in recent months.
Martina Navratilova was stunned by what she saw from Osaka and believes there is now a chance of the four-time Grand Slam champion to win Wimbledon for the first time in her career.
Asked which female star has impressed her the most at Wimbledon so far, Navratilova replied: “You have to go with Naomi Osaka.
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“Sabalenka–Osaka, I thought Sabalenka would win because she does everything a little better than Naomi Osaka. It was the other way round! Osaka did everything a little bit better than Sabalenka. She served better, she hit bigger.She played braver tennis, but most of all her serve.”
Navratilova believes her chances of winning Wimbledon will come down to that power and the dominance on her serve.
She explained: “She won like 80% of points on her serve. If she keeps playing like that she can hit anybody of the court. She hit Sabalenka off the court, who does that?”
Osaka has been in excellent form at Wimbledon and she has reached the quarter-finals of the tournament for the first time in her career.
The Japanese star has defeated Elsa Jacquemot, Anastasia Gasanova, Daria Kasatkina, and Sabalenka without dropping a single set and she will next play Karolina Muchova for a place in the final four.
Osaka and Muchova cannot be split in their head-to-head record, with each star winning three matches from their six meetings.
They most recently met in the Bad Homburg final, although that was curtailed after the first set due to an injury suffered by Osaka. That was their only meeting on grass to date.
At Grand Slam level, Osaka and Muchova have met three times, with the Japanese star picking up two victories. Osaka has beaten Muchova at the Australian Open and the US Open.
Muchova beat Osaka in the 2024 US Open to gain her only Grand Slam victory against the Japanese star, but Osaka will be buoyed by her recent record against the talented Czech star.
If Osaka does defeat Muchova in her quarter-final match, she will play the winner of Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff in the semi-finals.
