Former world number one Naomi Osaka broke new ground as she raced into the Wimbledon fourth round for the first time with victory over Daria Kasatkina.

All four of Osaka’s Grand Slam singles titles have been won on hard courts, and she has struggled to play her natural, big-hitting game on the French Open clay and All England Club grass-courts.

But the Japanese 14th seed – who arrived on Court One in yet another showstopping outfit – looked at home at SW19 as she thrashed Kasatkina 6-1 6-3 in just 65 minutes.

The dominant display comes less than five weeks after Osaka reached the last 16 of Roland Garros for the first time.

Osaka could face top seed Aryna Sabalenka in a blockbuster clash next if the Belarusian beats Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko later on Friday.

“I definitely felt really good today. I’ve played a lot of matches on grass for the past two weeks, so I felt really confident,” the 28-year-old said.

Osaka made her first grass-court final at the Bad Homburg Open last month, although on that occasion she was forced to retire injured at the start of the second set against Karolina Muchova.

However, it seems that run in Germany has given Osaka a much-needed boost of confidence on the surface, and she has yet to drop a set at Wimbledon.

In a near-perfect first set, Osaka hit just six unforced errors and lost only five points on serve.

Australia’s Kasatkina improved slightly in the second set and recovered from falling an early break down, but Osaka recovered quickly to win the next three games and see the victory.

Osaka won two US Open and two Australian Open titles between 2018 and 2021, but she has only advanced past the fourth round of a Grand Slam once since her return from maternity leave in 2024.

Daughter Shai celebrated her third birthday on Thursday, with Osaka telling the crowd in a post-match interview: “I don’t think I should be telling you this, but she was kind of bad yesterday.

“We tried to take her to the park, but then she needed to be in time-out, so we are going to try to take her today.

“It was an awesome birthday, she blew out her candles and made a wish, so I hope her wish is to behave better. If not, today is a new day for her!”