Naomi Osaka, who won the Australian Open earlier this year, has her eyes locked in on the top prize at the 2019 French Open. She will look to keep her dreams of completing a Grand Slam this year when she takes on Katerina Siniakova this Saturday in the third round. The sportsbook is in Osaka’s corner, with -300 odds to make it through the round compared to Siniakova’s price of +220. Read on for more about this intriguing matchup below.
Siniakova could use a rest. After a win in the first round over Elena Rybakina, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, Siniakova had to go through a marathon of a match in the next round, edging out Maria Sakkari, 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (8-10), 6-3 to send herself into the third round of the 2019 French Open. One more win and the 23-year-old Czech could secure at least a career-best finish at Roland Garros – a year after making it to the round of 32 at the tournament. Siniakova showed poise and displayed resiliency against Sakkari, as she overcame her opponent despite being on the receiving end for the most part of the match. She put 67 percent of her first serves in and won 45 percent of her first serve points. She isn’t much of a big server, but handled Sakkari partly by being just efficient with her game. Siniakova gad 24 fewer errors than Sakkari, while also breaking her opponent eight out of 14 chances.
For the second match in a row, Osaka had to battle back from a first set loss to win a match. After surviving Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in the first round, 0-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, Osaka eliminated Victoria Azarenka in the second round via a 4-6, 7- 5, 6-2 victory. Osaka can’t let having slow starts become a trend at the French Open, as the tournament gets deeper. It takes a lot to battle back and pull off a come-from-behind victories, especially since the competition get tougher and more unforgiving of opponents’ errors and weak game plans. Osaka has to cut down on unforced errors. He had 43 against Azarenka, who only had 38. In the third round, Osaka could use her power to rattle Siniakova, who got scored on by Sakkari with two aces and 48 game winners. (Siniakova had zero aces and managed just 24 winners.) While this is only their first meeting on a clay court, Osaka and Siniakova have met before once, with the former defeating the latter in Doha (hard court) last year, 6-4, 6-0.
