Naomi Osaka wins her second Australian Open title with a dominant straight-sets victory over Jennifer Brady

Naomi Osaka opened her campaign for 2021 by dominating the season-opening Australian Open and win the fourth grand slam of her career so far.

Osaka defeated Jennifer Brady in the final taking just one hour and 17 minutes to secure her second title at Melbourne Park, dispatching her American opponent 6-4, 6-3 on Rod Laver Arena.

The 23-year-old has been dubbed the successor to Serena Williams when the tennis icon eventually hangs up her racket.

The Japanese player proved her credentials again by becoming the first woman since Monica Seles in 1991 to win the first four major finals that she has competed in.

It is the fourth consecutive year that Osaka has won a major title, winning four of the last six grand slams on a hard surface.

In the presentation ceremony Osaka was thankful for the opportunity to play despite the ongoing world wide pandemic: “I feel like playing a grand slam is a privilege at the moment, it feels incredible to have fans, I played the last Grand Slam without fans, to have this energy means a lot.”

The world no.3 was strong favourite coming into the match against an opponent making their grand slam final debut and Brady made a nervy start being broken in only her second service game.

The 25-year old did however break straight back and forced Osaka on the back-foot in the next two games however couldn’t force another break whilst she was assailant.

Instead, the third-seed showed her guile to weather the storm before being gifted the opportunity to win the first set following a set of anxious errors from Brady.

From 4-4 in the first set, Osaka won six consecutive games to race into an unassailable 4-0 lead in the second set.

The double break proved to be decisive as the American put up a valiant fight but could only manage to claw one of those breaks back, eventually losing the second set 6-3.

The Japanese player’s success means she will rise up to second in the world rankings leapfrogging Simona Halep.

While her opponent, Brady will break into the world’s top 20 for the first time in her career following her successful run to the final.