By Toby Davis
LONDON (Reuters) -Four-times Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka survived a first-round scrap with Australian qualifier Talia Gibson to advance at Wimbledon with a battling 6-4 7-6(4) first-round win on Monday.
Japanese players may have no great love for Wimbledon’s lawns, having never got past the third round at the grasscourt major, but Osaka had enough quality and fight to subdue a spirited Gibson.
With the evening shadow spilling across Court 18 to take the sting out of what had been a ferociously hot day, former world number one Osaka had to fight back in both sets against the Aussie.
Yet after a second-round loss last year, the threat of another early exit was seemingly enough for the Japanese player to find extra gears when it mattered most.
Gibson was spraying winners around the court when she broke to go 3-1 up, but Osaka took stock and upped the pressure, breaking back to level at 3-3 and then again to take the first set as the Australian’s error count soared.
Gibson, the world number 126, could have crumbled at that point, but instead she dug in, breaking for a 4-3 lead before a rollercoaster finale.
The Australian, who was making her main draw debut, twice served for the set but was denied both times as Osaka conjured crucial breaks to force a tiebreak, where her extra class told.
Osaka’s form has been erratic since she returned after her maternity break at the start of last year, but there had been glimmers of hope for the current world number 53.
She reached the Australian Open third round in January before retiring injured and made the fourth round at the 1,000-level events in Miami and Rome this year.
Yet Osaka suffered a first-round loss at the French Open and has not had back-to-back wins on any surface since the Italian Open in May.
If she is to end that run at Wimbledon, the Japanese player will need to overcome either Katerina Siniakova or fifth-seeded Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the second round.
(Reporting by Toby Davis in London; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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