Naomi Osaka sails into her first Miami Open semifinal

Naomi Osaka is into her first Miami Open semifinal after defeating Danielle Collins 6-2, 6-1 in the quarterfinals.

She is just the second Japanese woman to reach the semifinals at Miami after Kimiko Date Krumm in 1993 and 1995.

It’s Osaka’s 18th career semifinal.

In 60 minutes, Osaka rolled through her service games and handled Collins, continuing her theme of not dropping a set in the Miami Open. She fired 13 aces and did not face break point once in the match. It was the most aces Osaka has fired off in the last two seasons save for her match against Leylah Fernandez in the US Open, when she fired off 15.

On top of her ace count, Osaka hit 25 winners to a mere three unforced errors, overpowering Collins’ 18 winners and 16 unforced errors.

“After Australia, I was training really hard every day,” Osaka told reporters after the match. “I went to Indian Wells with the intention to do really well, and then I didn’t. But Wim told me, Listen, you’re playing really well. But it’s hard to listen to someone tell you you’re playing well without having the results to back it up.

“I’m glad that, in a way, I don’t have a good ranking, because I’m able to play the matches that I need to play. I feel like I’m the type of person that plays better with more matches, so actually having back-to-back matches benefits me a lot.”

Osaka will next face defending Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, who she has yet to beat in a Tour-level match. Similar to Osaka, the No. 22 seed has not lost a set yet in the tournament, taking down Daria Saville 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.

Their last meeting came at the 2019 US Open, which Bencic won 7-5, 6-4.