Naomi Osaka victorious in Madrid return, defeats Greet Minnen for first clay win since 2022

Naomi Osaka made a winning return to the Mutua Madrid Open, defeating Greet Minnen, 6-4, 6-1 to reach the second round.

Osaka was playing only her second clay-court match since 2022 Roland Garros, having sat out the 2023 season to give birth to daughter Shai, and shook off a first-round loss in Rouen last week to ease past the Belgian qualifier in 79 minutes on Arantxa Sanchez Stadium.

A quarterfinalist in Madrid back in 2019, Osaka has long struggled on slower surfaces relative to hard courts, on which she has won all four of her Grand Slam titles. Her struggles on clay in particular have been well-documented, culminating with a 2021 decision first to eschew press conferences from that year's Roland Garros and later to withdraw entirely in an effort to preserve her mental health.

At that point, she had been one of the most dominant players on tour, winning back-to-back hard-court major titles at the 2020 US Open and 2021 Australian Open, compiling a 23-match win streak through March of that year.

Beginning her 2024 comeback on hard courts, Osaka enjoyed solid, if unremarkable results at the biggest tournaments; aside from an opening-round exit at the Australian Open, she reached the quarterfinals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open and back-to-back third rounds at the BNP Paribas Open and Miami Open.

Osaka has also appeared more determined to cement herself as a player for all surfaces since returning from maternity leave, opting to begin her clay-court campaign at the Open Capfinances Rouen Métropole, a WTA 250 in Rouen. Though she lost her first match in straight sets to Martina Trevisan, the 26-year-old, playing Madrid with a protected ranking, looked far more confident against Minnen on Wednesday.

Similarly battle-tested after a pair of three-setters in qualifying, Minnen looked poised to keep things close through the opening set, saving multiple break points behind a mix of power hitting and deft drop shots.

But momentum moved towards Osaka after the Japanese star held serve in the ninth game; from there, she won seven games in a row to find herself up a set and two breaks at 5-0.

Minnen stopped the run of games with a hold, but Osaka was in full flow serving for the match, opening the game with a backhand down the line as she got to two match points. Needing only one, Osaka clinched the match with a final backhand winner to end the contest in under 90 minutes.

In all, Osaka maintained an even stat sheet with 19 winners to 23 unforced errors and struck eight aces while saving the only break point she faced in two sets; Minnen, by contrast, struck 30 errors to 19 winners and dropped serve three times.

Waiting for Osaka in the second round will be No. 15 seed Liudmila Samsonova, who received a bye.