Naomi Osaka battles past Iva Jovic to reach French Open fourth round for first time

[p]On Court Suzanne Lenglen, the Japanese star once again made an eye-catching entry, wearing a gold jacket and a voluminous gold train, an outfit, bracketed by pink tennis sneakers and a black sponsor's visor.[/p][p]She shed the outer layers to play in another variation of her gold tennis dress, which shone in the blazing sun of the fading Paris heatwave.[/p][p]After the match, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/osaka-naomi/MDM4BKiA/"]Osaka[/a] refused to reveal if she had more outfits lined up in her hotel room.[/p][p][b]"I think it's a surprise every time," [/b]she said.[/p][embed guid="65c68df1-6a8b-4b3f-a28a-9ec31d20aac2" url="https://x.com/WTA/status/2060696696208715877" social-type="twitter" /][p]The No. 16 seed continued what is already her longest Roland Garros run.[/p][p]"I was a lot calmer than in my first matches," [b]said Osaka, who has won the Australian and US Opens twice each.[/b][/p][p]"In a slam the further I get the calmer I am. It such an honour to be here. It's the furthest I have ever been here."[/p][p]She will next face either women's No. 1 [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/sabalenka-aryna/vyhksgUB/"]Aryna Sabalenka[/a] or unseeded Australian [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/kasatkina-daria/GU42elks/"]Daria Kasatkina[/a].[/p][p]In a match dominated by the serve, Osaka gained the decisive break in the 10th game of the third set.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/jovic-iva/bmWvBlnL/"]Jovic[/a], seeded 17, opened the game with a 162kph ace, but after that, faltered when Osaka returned, finding the net twice and then hitting long on the first match point.[/p][image alt="Match stats" id="8a894e9e-14a4-47ed-9aed-ca60f7b62e34" credit-line="Enetpulse" guid="8dad35bb-61ff-4f72-a730-0f3bdf4f5ded" original-width="1080" original-height="1080" /][p]The players exchanged breaks early in the first set and midway through the second before both went to tiebreaks.[/p][p]Osaka edged the first. Jovic, 18, raced away to win in the second.[/p][p]The 28-year-old Osaka said her serve had been crucial against her young opponent.[/p][p][b]"I am really glad it was working,"[/b] said Osaka.[b] "Against some players you need to put your serve in and she was very aggressive on my second serve,"[/b][/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/jovic-i-bmWvBlnL/osaka-n-MDM4BKiA/?mid=MkW2B0up"]Check out the match summary here[/a].[/b][/p]