Jennifer Brady will look to do a Tom Brady in the finals of the 2021 Australian Open women’s singles. She’ll be up against Naomi Osaka, the heavy favorite in this matchup, which makes sense since she is the defending champion of the tournament. Are we going to see an upset win by Brady? Or will Osaka go back to back?
It’s not Serena Williams who’ll be representing the United States in the finals of the Australian Open. Instead, it’ll be the 25-year0old Jennifer Brady, who has made it to the last stage of the women’s singles tournament in this Grand Slam tournament after beating Karolina Muchova in the semifinals in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. That’s the second three-setter in a row for Brady, who also beat Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals 4-6, 6-2-,6-1. This is the deepest Brady has gone in a Grand Slam event so far in her still-young career. He made the semifinals of the 2020 US Open, so there seems to be a pattern of improvement for the world’s No. 24 WTA player. Brady has defeated Naomi Osaka before, to the tune of a 6-4 6-4 score though that was way back in 2014 at the 50k New Braunfels. At the semifinals of last year’s US Open, Brady won the first set against Osaka before eventually losing the match, 7-6(1) 3-6 6-3
Betting on Naomi Osaka (-524 to win)
Osaka is a win away from claiming her fourth career Grand Slam title after taking down the legendary Serena Williams in the semifinals, 6-3, 6-4. Osaka should arrive in the finals match against Brady with a fresher set of legs since he’s gone through just one three-setter in the tournament so far. She’s also not dropped a set in both of her last two matches, making quick work of Su-Wei Hsieh in the quarterfinals and Williams in the semis. Osaka’s power is clearly being felt in the tournament. She leads all players in the 2021 Australian Open women’s bracket with 44 aces, 12 more than Brady. One scary thing about Osaka when she gets this deep in big tourneys is that she has yet to lose in quarterfinals, semifinals, or finals of a grand slam tournament and has gone 3-0 in the finals. Aside from beating Brady last year in the US Open, Osaka has also defeated Brady in 2018 in Charleston (clay), 6-4 6-4.
