Osaka ends long wait for comeback win
Naomi Osaka rallied to beat Yulia Putintseva in the second round of the China Open, ending a wait of more than two years for a comeback victory.
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Osaka came from a set down to win 3-6 6-4 6-2 and tee up a third-round meeting with Katie Volynets, extending her winning streak at the Beijing event to eight matches.
She had failed to win any of her previous 22 matches when going a set down, a streak she was mightily relieved to snap.
"I heard that stat from my agent," Osaka said after her win.
"I wanted to break it really badly because I knew that I also had a stat about three-setters before I took my break, so that was really important to me.
"I also wanted to show myself that I could win a match and fight without playing as perfectly as I wanted to."
This is the first time Osaka has won back-to-back matches since June at 's-Hertogenbosch, where she reached the quarter-finals before falling to Bianca Andreescu.
The previous time she won from a set down, meanwhile, was in the Miami Open semi-finals in 2022, when she beat Belinda Bencic before losing to Iga Swiatek in the final.