Naomi Osaka is forecast to get past Anastasia Gasanova in the Wimbledon second round, with the matchup tilted toward Osaka in 2 after both players opened the tournament strongly. Gasanova arrives off an impressive, dominant first-round win, but the next step is a much higher one: a meeting with a former World No 1 whose power is expected to decide it.
That is why the search interest around Anastasia Gasanova is building now. She has already done the part that earns attention at Wimbledon, and Osaka has already done the part that warns the field she is moving well. After a retirement in the final of Bad Homburg, Osaka looked healthy in her first-round match and won in straight sets, easing immediate concerns about her condition and making the prediction sharper, not softer.
The numbers behind the pick are plain. One player came through her opening match without dropping a set. The other delivered a dominant win of her own. Still, the expectation is not for balance but for separation, and Jordan was just as direct in backing Osaka in 2, saying her power should be enough to see off Gasanova. That leaves Gasanova in the kind of match that can change how a run is judged: not just whether she won, but whether she could turn a confident start into something more lasting.
This is a predictions piece for Wimbledon Day 3, so the story is not about a result already in hand. It is about the size of the test now facing Gasanova and the sense that Osaka remains the outsider to reach the latter stages, even while looking fit enough to do more than survive. For Gasanova, the next answer comes on court against a far tougher opponent than the one she beat first; for Osaka, the question is whether the clean opening was the start of a deep run rather than a brief burst of form.
