Martina Trevisan halted Naomi Osaka’s return to clay at the first hurdle, knocking out the former World No.1 in the opening round of the Open Capfinances Rouen Métropole 6-4, 6-2.
Osaka, who returned from maternity leave in January and was competing as a wild card, had not played a clay-court match since Roland Garros 2022, where she lost in the first round to Amanda Anisimova. She has not won a match on clay since beating Anastasia Potapova in the first round of Madrid 2022.
By contrast, former No.18 Trevisan owns an impressive clay-court resume. She reached the Roland Garros quarterfinals in 2020 and the semifinals in 2022, and her sole Hologic WTA Tour title also came on clay at Rabat 2022. Trevisan also had a head start on her 2024 clay season: last week, she reached the quarterfinals of the Zaragoza ITF W100 event while Osaka was helping Japan defeat Kazakhstan in the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers on the indoor hard courts of Tokyo.
Trevisan will next face No.3 seed Anhelina Kalinina as she bids to reach her first quarterfinal since Hong Kong last October.
How the match was won: Trevisan has slumped to No.78 this year, and came into Rouen with just one tour-level win in eight matches in 2024. However, she was able to withstand Osaka’s firepower and use her affinity for the surface to pull away in the first-time encounter.
After an opening exchange of breaks, it was Osaka who had the upper hand throughout most of the first set. She settled into a groove on serve, and seemed comfortable in the longer baseline exchanges as well. The four-time major champion repeatedly pressured Trevisan’s delivery, bringing up two break points at 3-2 and three more at 4-3.
But Osaka was unable to convert as Trevisan clung on — and at 4-4, the turning point arrived. An Osaka double fault presaged the Japanese player’s forehand deserting her for the next two games; following a slew of errors on that side, Trevisan managed to snatch the set.
In the second set, the Italian went from strength to strength. She had found that certain patterns were especially effective against Osaka — chiefly the redirected forehand down the line and the drop shot — and repeatedly went back to them to tighten her grip of the match.