Osaka vs. Collins– Four stats you need to know ahead of their quarter-final clash at Miami
Tennis Majors, with our partner Opta, gets you primed for the Naomi Osaka vs Danielle Collins clash in Miami on Tuesday evening
Osaka vs Collins Stats
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Miami Open 2022: Women’s Singles Draw | Results | Order of Play
Two of the WTA’s biggest hitters – Naomi Osaka and Danielle Collins – will square off in the quarter-finals of the WTA Miami Open on Tuesday evening at the Hard Rock Stadium. While most of the buzz in Miami this week on the women’s side has been centered around Ash Barty‘s retirement and Iga Swiatek‘s rise to world No 1, the Osaka and Collins clash is intriguing in more ways than one.
28-year-old Collins started the season with a bang, powering her way to her first Grand Slam final in Australia, which included a win over Swiatek in the semis. But an injury forced her to retire mid-way through her first match in Dubai and Miami is her first event back since then.
On the other hand, 24-year-old Osaka has won three matches in a row (one of her wins in Miami came through a walkover) for just the second time since her Australian Open triumph in 2021.
Let’s take a look at some of the interesting stats around this match, which promises to be a big-hitting contest.
1 – The number of combined semi-final appearances for Osaka and Collins in Miami
Collins and Osaka have combined for one semi-final appearance in Miami between them. And that number will move to 2 on Tuesday. But it’s Collins and not Osaka who has gone the deepest in the Miami draw before.
Collins reached the semi-finals in her debut appearance in Miami in 2018, when she came through the qualifying draw and beat Coco Vandeweghe, Donna Vekic, Monica Puig and Venus Williams before finally going down to Jelena Ostapenko in the last four.
For all the success she has had on hardcourts, Osaka has yet to make the semis in Miami. This year, she has equaled her previous best result which came when she lost in the quarters to Maria Sakkari 12 months ago.
2 – The number of times Osaka and Collins have played each other
Tuesday’s meeting will be the third meeting between the two players. Osaka leads their head-to-head 2-0 but both of those matches were in the pre-COVID era. Osaka dropped just one game en route to a win in Beijing (round of 32) in 2018 while Collins fared much better in their 2019 Indian Wells clash (also round of 32), taking six games off Osaka.
3 – Osaka has lost her serve only once this fortnight in Miami
Osaka’s serve can be a big weapon when she is hitting it well. And she certainly seems to be hitting the sweet spots in Miami this fortnight. The 24-year-old has lost her serve only once en route to the quarters (during her fourth-round win over Alison Riske).
On the other hand, Collins has lost her serve six times in her three matches (as a seeded player, the American had a bye in the first round).
4 – Osaka has not played a top 10 ranked player since January 2020
Ranked No 77 in the world currently, Osaka is the clear underdog on paper against Collins, who is riding high at No 11 in the latest rankings. If Osaka wins on Tuesday, it will equal her biggest win (in terms of ranking) since January 2021.
Osaka defeated then world No 11 Serena Williams en route to her second Australian Open title last year. But you have to go back to Brisbane in January 2020 for the last time she played against a Top 10 player.
Osaka defeated world No 9 Kiki Bertens in the Brisbane quarters and then lost to second-ranked Karolina Pliskova in the semis that time. While this should not come as that much of a surprise when you see that the WTA Tour was suspended for five months in 2020 after the COVID-19 outbreak and Osaka’s decision to play fewer tournaments in 2021.
A win on Tuesday will put her up against either 28th ranked Belinda Bencic or 249th-ranked Daria Saville. But she could run into either current world No 6 Paula Badosa or Iga Swiatek (the incoming world No 1) in the final this week.
