Defending champion Osaka beaten by Anisimova in Australian Open thriller

Defending champion Naomi Osaka is out of the Australian Open after a third-round defeat by American Amanda Anisimova.

Osaka has returned to the sport this month after two breaks last season to protect her mental health, and had comfortably won her first two matches. But in 20-year-old Anisimova she came up against a player in red-hot form and, although Osaka did not play badly, she was beaten in a deciding first-to-10-points tie-break, losing 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5).

The result will be particularly disappointing because Osaka held two match points at 4-5 in the deciding set, but Anisimova saved them both and will go forward to face world No 1 Ashleigh Barty. A prodigious junior talent, Anisimova reached the French Open semi-finals as a 17-year-old but had struggled since the death of her father and coach Konstantin later in 2019.

She is ranked only 60th in the world but is unbeaten in 2022 having won the warm-up title in Melbourne and showed here that she remains one of the brightest prospects in the game. Anisimova is cut from the same cloth as Osaka in terms of the crispness and power of her ball-striking and this was a heavyweight contest from the start.

Osaka played a calm and composed first set but Anisimova cut down on her errors in the second to level the match and there was virtually nothing to choose between the two in a high-quality decider.

Anisimova edged in front early in the tie-break, though, and was almost flawless, dropping her racket to the court in disbelief after clinching victory with an ace on her first match point.

“Going into this match I knew I had to be playing sharp,” said Anisimova. “Naomi is an absolute champion so I knew I had to really step up my game. I think I started doing that in the second