Japan’s Naomi Osaka is set to compete with the incoming world number one, Poland’s Iga Swiatek, in the Miami Open finals after she overcame Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic in a hard-fought win.
The contest between Osaka, ranked 77 in the world against the 28th ranked world tennis singles player, Bencic ended 4-6 6-3 6-4 in favour of the Japanese to reach the finals.
Swiatek, who recently won the Indian Wells championship, is the second person to reach the finals of both tennis tournaments since 2016 after Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka. Azarenka won both trophies in 2016.
However, the Indian Wells champion defeated American Jessica Pegula 6-2 7-5 to reach the finals and is most likely to be crowned the new world number one The Trumpet gathered.
According to the record, Swiatek is on a 16-match winning streak and has won 18 consecutive sets.
Also, Osaka, who is yet to lose a match in Miami Open, would rise in world ranking if she can win the final which is slated for Saturday, 2 April, 2022.
Osaka said, after the match according to BBC Sport: “I feel like if I was negative for a split second, I would have lost the match today.
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“I have to keep pumping myself up and I haven’t played as many matches like a lot of these other players so I just have to keep learning,” she told BBC.
Swiatek recalled her experiences when she faced Osaka in her second WTA tour where she lost to the Japanese.
The prospective world number one revealed that she never regretted losing the match to Osaka who at then was the world number one but assured that she is on a different level now.
