Naomi Osaka won her first singles title since the Australian Open in January by beating Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-3 in the Toray Pan Pacific final on Sunday.
Enjoying strong support from a parochial crowd, the former No. 1-ranked Osaka dominated the match with her powerful groundstrokes and broke Pavlyuchenkova’s serve twice to take the opening set in 31 minutes.
Top-seeded Osaka didn’t ease off in the second set, denying the Russian any chance of getting a foothold in the match and closed out with an ace.
It is Osaka’s first title in the country of her birth she lost finals in Tokyo in 2016 and ‘18 and fourth in her career. She won back-to-back majors at the 2018 U.S. Open in 2018 and the Australian Open in January.
