TOKYO: Naomi Osaka’s homecoming couldn’t have gone much better.

Playing in her first tournament since her historic US Open triumph, third-seeded Osaka impressed her Japanese fans Wednesday with a powerful 6-2, 6-1 win over Dominika Cibulkova to reach the quarter-finals of the Pan Pacific Open.

Osaka, who earlier this month stunned Serena Williams to become Japan’s first grand slam singles champion, fired down 10 aces in a fearsome display of wham-bam tennis in Tokyo to put away Slovak Cibulkova in just under an hour.

The 20-year-old, cheered by the capacity home crowd, raced into a 4-0 lead in the opening set and then went on break her opponent three times in the second to ease to victory.

“It was really difficult,” Osaka said courtside. “I’m just grateful that I could play in front of you guys.”

Osaka will either play Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic or Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit in the quarter-finals.

Earlier in the day, two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza suffered a shock 6-1, 6-2 defeat by American qualifier Alison Riske.

World number 75 Riske scored her third victory over a top-20 ranked opponent this year, recording 19 winners to just nine unforced errors.

In her fifth quarter-final of the season, Riske will next face fourth seed Karolina Pliskova. The Czech recovered from a set down to beat Australia’s Daria Gavrilova 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 and avenge her opponent’s defeat of twin sister Kristyna earlier this week.

Second seed Caroline Garcia flirted with an early exit as the Frenchwoman overcame Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 to reach the last eight of the prestigious Tokyo event, whose list of former champions includes Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Kimiko Date and Martina Hingis.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2018