Birthday Girl Delivers Biggest Win of Her Career
Mia Pohankova has announced herself on the WTA Tour in emphatic fashion, defeating home favourite Naomi Osaka 6-3, 7-5 at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. The Slovakian, who celebrated her 18th birthday just seven days before the match, entered the tournament as a wild-card and showed no sign of nerves against a crowd heavily backing the former world number one. Pohankova won the junior singles title at Wimbledon in 2025, and this victory over a seeded, established WTA star signals she is ready to make the leap to the senior game in a serious way.
Osaka had arrived at this round of 16 in decent form, having beaten Italian star Jasmine Paolini in her opening match. But Pohankova was relentless, breaking down Osaka's game with clean hitting and confident movement throughout both sets.
A Busy Day in Tokyo
The win sets up a quarter-final clash between Pohankova and Alycia Parks, who cruised past Kimberly Birrell 6-3, 6-1 earlier in the day. Leylah Fernandez also progressed, knocking out fifth-seeded Elise Mertens 6-2, 7-6 in a tight second-set tiebreak. The tournament has also been affected by withdrawals, with second seed Maja Chwalinska (left thigh) and fourth seed Belinda Bencic (right ankle) both pulling out due to injury. Top-ranked Elena Rybakina was scheduled to face Yulia Putintseva in a late match, with both players representing Kazakhstan despite being born in Russia.
TennisDraw users had Osaka pencilled in as a strong quarter-final contender, making Pohankova's run one of the biggest bracket-busting moments of the week.
