MELBOURNE, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Naomi Osaka booked her place in the semifinals of the Australian Open on Wednesday, breezing past injured Ukrainian sixth seed Elina Svitolina in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.
With high expectations for last year's U.S. Open winner, the 21-year-old has showed immense fight in the tournament so far, battling back from a set down in her previous matches against Anastasija Sevastova and Hsieh Su-Wei.
In Wednesday's match, however, Osaka looked calm and in control, scoring a break early in the first set and continuing her dominance in the second.
"For me today I just had one goal and it was to try as hard as I can and not get angry. I didn't do that too well in the last two rounds so I'm really happy," Osaka said after the match.
Suffering from a shoulder and neck injury, an ailing Svitolina called for a medical time-out early in the first set and appeared uncomfortable on court throughout the contest.
"Unfortunately I couldn't produce 100 percent of the game that I wanted," Svitolina admitted.
"I felt pain from the beginning of the tournament here and there. It was going and coming back. Yeah, unfortunately today was a little bit worse than I expected."
"But in the end, she was just playing better today."
Garnering a huge amount of attention, the young Japanese hitter has also captured the eye of Chinese tennis great Li Na, who told reporters in Melbourne that she is a big fan of Osaka's game.
"When I first saw Naomi Osaka play, I thought she was really calm down and very mature on court," the soon-to-be inducted International Tennis Hall-of-famer said.
"That quality and focus is really impressive," Li added.
