Naomi Osaka’s asian swing hits another roadblock as she falls to Noskova

Naomi Osaka came to Wuhan hoping to build on a steady comeback season, one that had shown flashes of her old brilliance. Instead, she left with more questions than answers.

Under the thick evening air of central China, the former World No.1 was undone not by an off day, but by a sharper, hungrier opponent in Linda Noskova.

The 20-year-old Czech, who seems incapable of slowing down, earned a 7-6(2), 6-3 victory that pushed her into the third round and left Osaka to ponder another opportunity lost.

This match felt, in many ways, like a snapshot of where Osaka stands in her journey back to the elite. The serve — that old weapon that once sliced through pressure like a blade — was firing for much of the first set. She dropped just six points behind it, but the tension built with each missed opening.

Twice she had chances to break Noskova, twice she faltered. When the tiebreak arrived, it all came undone with a double fault that cracked her rhythm. From there, unforced errors crept in and Noskova seized control, taking the set with a burst of confidence that looked effortless.

Osaka’s inability to convert when it mattered most defined the evening.

Early in the second set, she had two more break points. Both vanished under Noskova’s poise. Then, at 4-3, Noskova pounced on her first real chance, breaking Osaka and serving out the match with icy precision.

The entire contest lasted just 88 minutes, but it was enough to underline the contrast between a player still regaining her footing and one striding fearlessly into the top tier.

For Noskova, this win was the continuation of a blistering run through Asia.

Barely 48 hours after surviving a three-set marathon against Yulia Putintseva, and fresh off her first WTA 1000 final in Beijing, she’s now notched her tenth Top 20 win of 2025.

“I try to be as humble as possible, because every tournament is different,” Noskova said after the match. “You have to step on a new court almost every single day. So I tried to focus just on this tournament, and leave what happened last week behind. But at the same time I want to bring that confidence on court. So I have to take some percentage of it as well.”

That percentage seems to include a serve that refuses to wilt.

Noskova faced four break points and saved them all. Her composure in the tiebreak was another mark of her growing maturity. “I’m getting better at tiebreaks, I think,” she said with a grin. “So it was great to have another one on the board for me.”

She now marches forward to face Elena Rybakina for a place in the quarterfinals. For Osaka, attention now turns to Tokyo, where she’ll have the crowd and perhaps her rhythm too back on her side.