Naomi Osaka won her first singles title since the Australian Open in January by beating Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-3 in the Toray Pan Pacific final on Sunday.
Enjoying strong support from a parochial crowd, the former No. 1-ranked Osaka dominated the match with her powerful groundstrokes and broke Pavlyuchenkova’s serve twice to take the opening set in 31 minutes.
Top-seeded Osaka didn’t ease off in the second set, denying the Russian any chance of getting a foothold in the match and closed out with an ace.
It is Osaka’s first title in the country of her birth — she lost finals in Tokyo in 2016 and ’18 — and fourth in her career. She won back-to-back majors at the U.S. Open in 2018 and the Australian Open in January.
At the Korea Open in Seoul, Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic defeated fourth-seeded Magda Linette of Poland in the final.
The No. 3-seeded Muchova coasted to the title, overcoming her opponent 6-1, 6-1.
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