PARIS, May 30 (Reuters) – Naomi Osaka dazzled with an all-gold outfit but had to dig deep for a hard-fought 7-6(5) 6-7(3) 6-4 victory over American teenager Iva Jovic on Saturday to reach her first-ever French Open fourth round.
• Playing in a gold sequined top and skirt – her latest fashion statement in Paris – Osaka found it hard going from the start, with the American teenager dulling her opponent’s sparkle in her first Grand Slam third-round appearance.
• The 18-year-old Jovic may have found herself in unknown tournament territory but looked completely at ease on Court Suzanne Lenglen as she pushed the former world number one to a first-set tiebreak.
• Osaka, seeded 16th, had wasted two set points at 6-5 and needed three more before subduing the American 7-5 in the tiebreak.
• It was a similar story in the second set, with a break apiece and Jovic winning the second tiebreak to level.
• The third set was again on a razor’s edge, with Jovic refusing to buckle and matching Osaka’s power blow for blow. But the Japanese carved out a match point at 5-4 on the American’s serve and converted it to move into the next round.
• She will now play either top seed Aryna Sabalenka or Australian Daria Kasatkina.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann. Editing by Mark Potter)
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