Naomi Osaka Sweeps Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in 1st Round of 2021 Australian Open

Rick Rycroft/Associated Press

No. 3 Naomi Osaka made quick work of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round of the Australian Open, sweeping the Russian 6-1, 6-2 on Sunday.

It's the sixth straight year Osaka has made it to the second round as the 2019 tournament champion looks to claim her second title at the Grand Slam event. 

Osaka was as surgical as ever, claiming the first four games in the first set before Pavlyuchenkova could get on the board. Overall, the 23-year-old won nearly twice as many points as Pavlyuchenkova (65-39), won 5-of-7 break points and had a first-serve success rate of 73 percent. 

Pavlyuchenkova could hardly keep up as Osaka needed just 68 minutes to win the match. 

Now Osaka will await the winner between Polona Hercog and Caroline Garcia to see who she'll face in the second round. 

The tennis star who represents Japan has won a Grand Slam singles tournament in each of the last three years and ended 2020 as the U.S. Open champion. She could open up her 2021 season with a massive victory and elevate herself even further by becoming the 19th woman to win multiple singles titles at the Australian Open. 

There's still quite aways to go before she gets there, but Osaka proved she can run down that path quickly when needed. 

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Pavlyuchenkova found that out firsthand.