NEW YORK, Sept. 2-- Naomi Osaka of Japan ended her title defence at the US Open as the top seed lost to Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 7-5, 6-4 in the fourth round on Monday. The result also means that Osaka will lose the world No. 1 ranking after the tournament to Roland Garros champion Ashleigh Barty of Australia. "Obviously I always adapt to my opponent, and that's just how I play," Bencic said. "I don't have the biggest power, don't have the most winners or most aces. But I think I can really read the opponent's game well. I definitely try to do that against anyone, not only against her. Just taking the ball early and anticipating her. I think my game probably matches up well against hers." Osaka agreed, saying: "She played pretty clean. I think she had a specific plan she wanted to execute." "Right now I have this feeling of sadness, but I also feel like I have learned so much during this tournament," Osaka said. "Of course I wanted to defend this tournament. So I hope that I can keep growing. I know that if I keep working hard, then of course I'll have better results." A positive for Osaka was that she felt she improved her game over the summer. "I don't feel like I put so much weight on one single match," she explained. "As a whole I want to see that I played better matches through the summer. Because I feel like definitely the tournament that I played here has been the best one over the summer so far." |