Naomi Osaka ended her 8-month long title drought by winning the Pan Pacific Open in Japan on September 22. This is her 2nd trophy of the year, after winning the Grand Slam in Australia in January. Previously, she had won the US Open in 2018. Naomi secured her win in just over an hour against Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (6-2, 6-3).

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Third Time's a Charm

This was her third attempt at finals at the tournament. The world number 4 finished runner-up in 2016 and 2018. In her two previous Pan Pacific finals, Osaka lost to Caroline Wozniacki and Karolina Pliskova in Tokyo in 2016 and 2018, respectively. Third time has proved to be lucky for Osaka.

The 21-year-old was born in Osaka. It is her first title in the country of her birth. She has now become the first Japanese player to win the Pan Pacific title since Kimiko Date in 1995.

Naomi Osaka had a comfortable victory and dominated the court right from the 1st set. She broke Pavlyuchenkova's serve twice and raced into a 3-0 lead early on, taking the opening set in 31 minutes. Thereafter in the 2nd set, Osaka broke her serve once and maintained her streak and secured an easy win. The need for a third set didn't arise.

The world number four said: "This is the city where I was born and that gave me a lot of power to play match after match.

This victory avenged Osaka's defeat to Pavlyuchenkova en route the 2017 Hong Kong Open title, when the Russian beat her. 

After securing her victory in the semi-final against Elise Mertens of Belgium, Osaka had proclaimed her comfort on hard courts.

She said, "I know that a hard court is where I feel most comfortable."

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Parted ways with Coach

A week ago, Naomi Osaka had parted ways with her coach Jermaine Jenkins within a span of 7 months after her defeat in the 4th round of the US Open. Osaka has not reached a tournament final since she partnered up with Jenkins after abruptly ending her association with Sascha Bajin.

Prior to that, Naomi had been defeated early in the US Open which had seen her drop in the world rankings, bringing her to the fourth position, with Ashleigh Barty claiming the top spot, Karolina Pliskova at the second rank and Elina Svitolina at the third rank in the Women's Tennis Association.

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