With Kyrgios in her box, Osaka clears the first round at Wimbledon
Naomi Osaka eliminated the Australian qualifier Talia Gibson (6-4, 7-6) to set up a second-round match, potentially against the 5th seed Qinwen Zheng.
Naomi Osaka at Wimbledon 2025 | © Antoine Couvercelle
Naomi Osaka can definitely wipe away the tears from her first-round loss at Roland-Garros. The former world number one dispelled some doubts by dominating Australian qualifier Talia Gibson to open her 2025 Wimbledon campaign (6-4, 7-6).
Gibson offered Osaka the kind of challenge the Japanese player represents for her rivals: a player who hits very fast on both sides and takes huge risks.
In this match, which could have seemed like a mutual display of power, Patrick Mouratoglou’s protégé was the most consistent and clear-headed under pressure. Both players recorded the same number of winners (18), but Gibson committed 18 more unforced errors than her opponent (41-23), a figure easy to relate to the 17-point difference between the two players at the end of the match.
Osaka’s nerves
Osaka, who has lost matches in recent weeks due to excessive impatience, notably in Rome against Stearns or Badosa in Paris, can reflect on the calm she maintained at the start of the first set when she was broken and fell behind 2-1, then especially at 5-4 and 6-5 against her in the second set when Gibson served twice for a third set.
The presence of Nick Kyrgios in the Japanese player’s box, alongside Patrick Mouratoglou’s staff and Osaka’s close circle, was the image at the end of the match. Osaka and Kyrgios share the same agent, and Australia is in cahoots with Mouratoglou, with whom Kyrgios shared dinner this weekend in central London for UTS.
Osaka still had a few hours to wait to know her opponent. Qinwen Zheng, the 5th seed, and Katerina Siniakova had not yet started their match on Court No. 3, which was marked by three long matches this Monday: Kartal vs. Ostapenko, Rune vs. Jarry, and Berrettini vs. Majchrzak. A court full of surprises.
London (Grand Slam), other first-round results (All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, grass, GBP 53.500.000, most recent results first):
- Katerina Siniakova vs. Qinwen Zheng
- Dayana Yastremska vs. Coco Gauff
- Victoria Azarenka vs. Anastasia Zakharova
- Jessica Bouzas Maneiro vs. Ella Seidel
- Sofia Kenin vs. Taylor Townsend
- Elina Avanesyan vs. Elena Rybakina
- Alycia Parks vs. Belinda Bencic
- Magda Linette vs. Elsa Jacquemot
- Maria Sakkari vs. Anna Blinkova
- Petra Kvitova vs. Emma Navarro
- Veronika Kudermetova vs. Lin Zhu
- Yuliia Starodubtseva vs. Francesca Jones
- Catherine McNally vs. Jodie Burrage
- Iga Swiatek vs. Polina Kudermetova
- Caroline Dolehide vs. Arantxa Rus
- Anastasia Potapova vs. Magdalena Frech
- Hailey Baptiste vs. Sorana Cirstea
- Barbora Krejcikova vs. Alexandra Eala
- Maya Joint vs. Liudmila Samsonova
- Anna Kalinskaya vs. Nina Stojanovic
- Camila Osorio vs. Danielle Collins
- Jil Teichmann vs. Lucia Bronzetti
- Mirra Andreeva vs. Mayar Sherif
- Zeynep Sonmez vs. Jaqueline Cristian
- Karolina Muchova vs. Xinyu Wang
- Irina-Camelia Begu vs. Kaja Juvan
- Daria Kasatkina vs. Emiliana Arango
- Clara Tauson vs. Heather Watson
- Veronika Erjavec vs. Marta Kostyuk
- Elisabetta Cocciaretto vs. Jessica Pegula
- Katie Volynets vs. Tatjana Maria
- Priscilla Hon vs. Ekaterina Alexandrova
- Suzan Lamens vs. Iva Jovic
- Ashlyn Krueger vs. Mika Stojsavljevic: monday
- Elise Mertens vs. Linda Fruhvirtova: monday
- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Ajla Tomljanovic: monday
- Paula Badosa vs. Katie Boulter: monday
- Amanda Anisimova (13) beat Yulia Putintseva: 6-0, 6-0
- Marie Bouzkova beat Lulu Sun: 6-4, 6-4
- Jasmine Paolini (4) beat Anastasija Sevastova: 2-6, 6-3, 6-2
- Kamilla Rakhimova beat Aoi Ito: 5-7, 6-3, 6-2
- Emma Raducanu beat Mingge Xu (WC): 6-3, 6-3
- Ann Li beat Viktorija Golubic: 6-3, 4-6, 6-1
- Marketa Vondrousova beat McCartney Kessler (32): 6-1, 7-6 (3)
- Renata Zarazua beat Yanina Wickmayer: 6-0, 6-3
- Dalma Galfi beat Harriet Dart (WC): 3-6, 6-3, 7-5
- Leylah Fernandez (29) beat Hannah Klugman (WC): 6-1, 6-3
- Olga Danilovic beat Shuai Zhang (Q): 6-2, 6-4
- Madison Keys (6) beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse: 6-7 (4), 7-5, 7-5
- Diana Shnaider (12) beat Moyuka Uchijima: 7-6 (5), 6-3
- Laura Siegemund beat Peyton Stearns: 6-4, 6-2
- Solana Sierra (LL) beat Olivia Gadecki: 6-2, 7-6 (8)
- Aliaksandra Sasnovich (Q) beat Varvara Gracheva: 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (8)
- Beatriz Haddad Maia (21) beat Rebecca Sramkova: 7-6 (7), 6-4
- Aryna Sabalenka (1) beat Carson Branstine (Q): 6-1, 7-5
- Linda Noskova (30) beat Bernarda Pera: 6-2, 6-4
- Cristina Bucsa beat Anca Todoni: 6-4, 6-4
- Viktoriya Tomova beat Ons Jabeur: 7-6 (5), 2-0 ret.
- Diane Parry (Q) beat Petra Martic (Q): 4-6, 6-3, 6-2
- Eva Lys beat Yue Yuan: 6-4, 5-7, 6-2
- Donna Vekic (22) beat Kimberly Birrell: 6-0, 6-4
- Elina Svitolina (14) beat Anna Bondar: 6-3, 6-1
- Sonay Kartal beat Jelena Ostapenko (20): 7-5, 2-6, 6-2
