Naomi Osaka cruises into third round at US Open with dominant win over Baptiste

Andy Clayton, New York Daily News on Aug 28, 2025

Published in Tennis

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NEW YORK — Naomi Osaka didn’t need to take her game out of cruise control on Thursday afternoon.

The two-time US Open champion, seeded No. 23 at this year’s tournament, dominated American Hailey Baptiste, 6-3, 6-1, in front of a sleepy early afternoon crowd at Louis Armstrong Stadium.

The second-round match lasted just 70 minutes and ended with Baptiste, 23, serving up her ninth double fault on match point.

The four-time Grand Slam winner, sporting a purple Nike bubble hem skirt on this 75-degree day in Flushing, pumped her fist, slapped her thigh and bounced from side to side throughout a match she dominated from start to finish.

After fighting off a break point in her opening service game, Osaka took immediate control of the match by breaking Baptiste to go up 2-0 in the first six minutes of the match.

Double faults would be the story of the day for the 47th-ranked Baptiste, who won her first career match at the US Open with a Round 1 victory over Katernina Siniakova (7-5, 6-3) on Monday. She also unleashed 25 unforced errors, won only 48% of her first-serve points and was under threat on almost every service game.

Osaka capped the first set with a 109-mph serve out wide in the ninth game to reach set point at 40-15. She then fired up a 112-mph serve to close out the set.

Overall, Osaka — who won the US Open in 2018 and 2020 — won 5 of 8 break points.

The Japanese star, who is in the same quarter of the draw with third-ranked American Coco Gauff, will next face the winner of the match between No. 15 Daria Kasatkina and Kamilla Rakhimova.

It was the second consecutive straight-sets win for Osaka after she beat Greet Minnen, 6-3, 6-4, on Tuesday night.

She was ousted from the ’24 US Open in the second round by Karolina Muchova in straight sets after not playing in the ’23 event while on maternity leave. Her daughter was born in July of that year.