Fresh off a second-round tantrum, defending Australian Open champion Naomi Osaka concedes she needs to stay calmer on court.
The Japanese third seed was fired-up during her 6-2 6-4 win against China’s Zheng Saisai on Wednesday, with windy conditions forcing her to hit a number of balls long.
After cruising through the first set on Margaret Court Arena, Osaka was broken twice early in the second and became annoyed.
The 22-year-old proceeded to throw and kick her racquet and, at one stage, she appeared forlorn sitting with a towel over her head courtside.
“I was complaining over here and almost throwing my racquet over there, but it worked out,” Osaka said.
“I definitely got very frustrated in the second set, and it’s something that I knew would happen, but I didn’t know the scale what she (Zheng) would do to make me frustrated
“I just really have to focus on knowing that I’m going to have really tough matches and I have to find a way to go around it and just be consistently level-headed.”
After a mini-meltdown, Osaka composed herself to win the final four games of the match.
The two-time major winner will face American teen prodigy Coco Gauff in the third round – a rematch of their one-sided clash at last year’s US Open which Osaka won.
Runner-up to Osaka last year, Petra Kvitova, also won her second-round match after a tough straight-sets victory over Spain’s Paula Badosa.
After dropping just one game during her first-round blitz, the Czech seventh seed was made to work harder this time, but still did enough to prevail 7-5 7-5.
“She (Badosa) played a great match and made it really tough for me to get through,” Kvitova said.
The dual Wimbledon winner will play Russian 25th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova on Friday.
An emotional Caroline Wozniacki, the 2018 champion who is retiring after the Open, defeated 23rd seed Dayana Yastremska 7-5 7-5 in a touch more than two hours on court.
But 11th seed Aryna Sabalenka and 13th seed Petra Martic tumbled out.
Tipped as an Open dark horse, Sabalenka lost 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (8-6) to veteran Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, a three-time Melbourne Park quarter-finalist.
Martic lost to German Julia Goerges 4-6 6-3 7-5.
American Alison Riske is on track for a round of 16 blockbuster with Ashleigh Barty after the 18th seed annihilated China’s Zhu Lin 6-3 6-1 in the second round.
World No.1 Barty needed barely an hour to take care Polona Hercog, winning 6-1 6-4.
American 14th seed Sofia Kenin and Belgium’s world No.17 Elise Mertens also had comfortable second-round wins.
