Osaka beats Sabalenka at the fourth attempt this year, into a first Wimbledon quarter-final

Four. That is how many times Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka have met this season, every one of them in a round of 16. The world No. 1 won the first three. At Wimbledon, Osaka turned the fourth around: 6-2 7-6(2) in the fourth round, and a first Wimbledon quarter-final of her career.

Osaka built the win on serve and never let it slip. She hit 8 aces, won 33 of 38 points behind her first serve, held all 10 of her service games and faced only two break points, both in the first set, saving both. Two breaks of the Sabalenka serve carried the opening set 6-2, and when the second set reached a tiebreak Osaka ran it to 6-1. Sabalenka saved one match point, then Osaka closed the tiebreak 7-2 on her second. She won 70 of the 127 points played against the top seed.

The result breaks the pattern of Osaka’s season. Sabalenka had beaten her three times this year, 6-2 6-4 at Indian Wells, 6-7(1) 6-3 6-2 in Madrid and 7-5 6-3 at Roland Garros, each time in the round of 16. This was the fourth meeting of the year at exactly that stage, and the first that Osaka won. Their tour-level head to head now reads 3-2 to Sabalenka; Osaka’s only earlier win came in the fourth round of the 2018 US Open, the tournament she went on to win for her first Grand Slam title.

Wimbledon had been the gap in Osaka’s record. In five previous main draws, in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2024 and 2025, she never passed the third round; it was the only Grand Slam where she had not reached a round of 16. Next she plays Karolina Muchova for a place in the semi-finals, and the recent history between them runs both ways: eight days ago Osaka retired from the Bad Homburg final against Muchova at 6-1 1-0 down, and last September Osaka beat her 6-4 7-6(3) in the US Open quarter-final.

Match tale, 5 July 2026, sources: The Championships, Wimbledon; api-tennis