Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka will face one another in the fourth round of Roland Garros.
It marks yet another meeting between these WTA powerhouses, pitting two multiple Grand Slam champions against one another for a spot in the quarter-finals.
However, when speaking at her press conference after beating Iva Jovic, the Japanese superstar was shocked to learn this information.
Naomi Osaka, therefore, offered her instant reaction to learning that Aryna Sabalenka would be her next opponent at Roland Garros.
Naomi Osaka reacts to facing Aryna Sabalenka in Roland Garros round four
When asked what she has learned from her two meetings against the world number one this year, Osaka admitted: “I don’t really know; I kind of just like… I didn’t know that, so.”
She took this revelation in good faith, adding: “I don’t know. YOLO, like, whatever happens.
“I feel like I’ve played her pretty, like, I played a pretty good match in Madrid.
Is this one of the the best match-ups on the entire WTA Tour?
Who is taking the win at Roland Garros? 👀
“I think I just dipped in the second and third set, so hopefully just keep the consistency and keep trying to be aggressive and whatever happens happens.”
Then, touching on her clay resurgence, with this being her first time ever reaching the fourth round here in Paris, Osaka stated: “I just keep thinking of the stat that Tomasz told me. I don’t know if it’s accurate, but it’s been helping me out a lot.
“He’s said like, I don’t want to tell you guys the numbers ’cause I’m gonna be totally wrong. But he’s basically, he said, like, Nadal won, like, 98% of his matches here, and he’s only won, like, 50 something percent of the points, so I just thought to myself, like, I don’t have to win every single point, but I just have to try every single point, and hopefully it goes in my favour, but, yeah.”
Sabalenka spoke after reaching a crucial career milestone earlier today, and she will hope to extend this record with another win over Osaka.
Naomi Osaka responds when asked if her match vs Aryna Sabalenka should be a night session
Osaka facing Sabalenka is, arguably, the most exciting match-up that the WTA Tour has to offer.
Therefore, already many have begun speculating whether this might be one of very few women’s matches to actually be scheduled on the night session.
Over the past five years, four of the 50 night sessions have been contested by WTA players. The rest were male-dominated.
Last year saw a particular uprising in complaints, with many questioning Roland Garros for their scheduling decisions regarding the night session.
Surely, if anything is going to turn the organisers’ heads, it will be this match-up.
How do you feel about Iga Swiatek always getting the match slots she wants?
Asked in her press conference if she thinks her clash with Sabalenka should be played under floodlights, Osaka admitted: “Honestly I’m pretty easygoing. I don’t mind which court I play or what time I play.
“Yeah, I mean… I don’t know, I understand because they would be like popcorn matches, but I’m so used to not playing night matches here and playing night matches in like, US Open or something like that that I don’t even associate this tour with night matches.”
