Tokyo Olympics: Naomi Osaka beats China’s Zheng Saisai, to face Viktorija Golubic next

Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka made her return to the court with an easy win as she breezed past world number 52 Zheng Saisai of China 6-1, 6-4 in a match that lasted one hour and 34 minutes on Sunday, July 25. She returned to the court after almost two months after she withdrew from the French Open in May to take a mental health break. She had then revealed that she was dealing with depression and skipped the Wimbledon Championship as well.

Osaka started the match with power and pace as she was serving aces and hitting some powerful backhands to take a 5-0 lead in the first set. Osaka managed to serve six aces and produced a total of 25 winners as opposed to one ace and 10 winners by Zheng.

Osaka's match was originally scheduled to open the tournament on Saturday but then was pushed back a day before her starring role in Friday's opening ceremony where she lit the Olympic cauldron. Osaka will now face the 50th-ranked Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland.

She has been ranked No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and is the first Asian player to hold the top ranking in singles. She is a four-time Grand Slam singles champion and is the reigning champion at the US Open and the Australian Open.

The French Open incident

Osaka was the second seed at the 2021 French Open and just before the tournament started, she announced that she will not be conducting her compulsory media press conferences. After Osaka won her first match in straight sets and did not hold a press conference, she was fined $15,000 and threatened with rising levels of fines and possible expulsion. The following day, she announced her withdrawal from the tournament and cited mental health issues as the reason. Many fellow athletes and sponsors have voiced support for Osaka, with some noting a rarely discussed issue of mental health, although the overall reaction from the wider tennis community was mixed. On June 17, 2021, Osaka's agent announced that she would not participate in the upcoming Wimbledon Championships but would only take part in the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

(Image Credits: @Olympics - Twitter)