MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Naomi Osaka’s eyes filled with tears as her match ended, an all-too-familiar scene for her in recent years.
These were of the cheerful variety.
It’s a big step forward for the former world No. 1.
The unseeded Osaka defeated No. 22 Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in Thursday’s Miami Open semifinals. She is in a league game for the first time since the 2021 Australian Open and meets either Jessica on Saturday Pegula #16 or Iga Swiatek #2.
“Damn, I’m almost crying,” Osaka said.
Maybe not even close. She hid her face behind an orange towel a few times after the game was over, with at least one tear clearly running down her right cheek. Osaka entered this tournament ranked 77th in the world, will leave Miami no worse than 36th and would be back in the top 30 if she wins the title.
It’s been a long, arduous and often emotional ride for Osaka since her 2018 US Open final victory over Serena Williams. She was devastated by a snide yell from a spectator during a defeat at Indian Wells on March 12, withdrew from last year’s French Open to address her mental health and left last year’s US Open in tears.
But in South Florida, one of the places she calls home, it was fan support.
“From the bottom of my heart, thank you,” Osaka told them in their on-court interview.
Pegula and Swiatek, who will replace the now-retired Ashleigh Barty as the world’s No. 1 women’s player next week, met in Thursday night’s other women’s semifinals.
Meanwhile, Daniil Medvedev entered the tournament as the second greatest male player in the world. Hubert Hurkacz has assured that he will stay there.
Hurkacz, the No. 8-seeded reigning Miami champion, wore down the top-seeded and convulsing Medvedev 7-6 (7), 6-3 in Thursday’s men’s quarterfinals.
“Every muscle just went ‘spasm, spasm, spasm, spasm,'” Medvedev said.
Had Medvedev prevailed, he would have passed Novak Djokovic on Monday and returned to world No. 1. Instead, the Russian will remain world No. 2 and find out who wins the Miami title like everyone else on Sunday.
“For me, in a way, winning the game itself was more important than becoming number 1,” said Medvedev. “I saw winning the match more as a bonus.”
Hurkacz, coming from Poland, will next meet Spain’s No.14 Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals. Alcaraz defeated the unseeded Serbian Miomir Kecmanovic 6: 7 (5), 6: 3, 7: 6 (5) in the last men’s quarterfinals on Thursday evening.
“I hit back pretty well, I put some pressure on his serves and that helped my game,” Hurkacz said. “I was able to get some comp points on my serve and that was quite a lot.”
In the other semi-final, sixth seeded Norway’s Casper Ruud meets unseeded Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina.
Hurkacz has played Medvedev four times, and Medvedev has been world no. 2 in each of those encounters – which they have now separated. Hurkacz improved to 14-5 this year and his all-time Miami record is 12-1.
“It’s so much fun to come here,” said Hurkacz.