Tennis: Japan's U.S. Open champ Naomi Osaka advances to Pan Pacific semis

Naomi Osaka booked her ticket to the Toray Pan Pacific Open semifinals with a straight-sets win against Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic on Friday.Having quickly overpowered Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova in the previous round, the U.S. Open champion had to dig deeper for her 6-3, 6-4 victory over the 25th-ranked Strycova in 1 hour, 31 minutes.Osaka, the world No. 7, struggled to land her first serve early in each set at Arena Tachikawa Tachihi and gave her opponent a number of second chances with inaccurate shots. But in both sets, the local favorite eventually took control after find…READ FULL ARTICLE