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Imago

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Imago

Naomi Osaka finally has an answer to Aryna Sabalenka. The 14th seed beat the world No. 1 6-2, 7-6 to reach her first Wimbledon quarter-final, snapping a run in which Sabalenka had won all three of their previous meetings this season, including at Roland Garros just a month earlier.

Asked what had suddenly clicked for her on the grass, Osaka pointed straight to her team, with a special mention for her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, who previously worked with Iga Swiatek.

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“The big Polish man, shout out Tomasz,” she said during the on-court interview. “Shout out my team, Mati, Jacob, Robbie who’s at home probably crying and watching this. My team is the best team ever. I have so much fun with them. I learned so much, and I’m so grateful that they’re on this journey with me.”

The win extended what is already Osaka’s best season on grass and clay combined, having reached her first grass-court final in Bad Homburg just before Wimbledon. It also showed there was a change in her game that Wiktorowski, who has been working with her since last summer, has definitely helped her break on a surface that had eluded her for years.

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Prem Mehta

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Prem Mehta is a Tennis Journalist at EssentiallySports, contributing athlete-led coverage shaped by firsthand competitive experience. A former tennis player, he picked up the sport at the age of seven after watching Roger Federer compete at Wimbledon, a moment that sparked a long-term commitment to the game. Ranked among the Top 100 players in India in the Under-14 category, Prem brings a grounded understanding of tennis at the grassroots and developmental levels. His sporting background extends beyond the court, having also competed in district-level cricket, giving him exposure to high-performance environments across disciplines. Prem transitioned from playing to writing to remain closely connected to the sport beyond competition. Before joining EssentiallySports, he worked as a Tennis Analyst at Sportskeeda, covering major ATP and WTA events while tracking trends across both Tours. His coverage centres on match analysis, player narratives, and opinion-led pieces that balance data with intuition. With an academic background in psychology and a strong interest in sport psychology, Prem adds contextual depth to moments of pressure and decision-making, offering readers insight into what unfolds between the lines as much as what appears on the scoreboard.

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