Bidding for her maiden Grand Slam title, the rising 25-year-old Jennifer Brady will face the ultimate test against the Japanese third seed Naomi Osaka in Saturday's Australian Open final. 

The world number 24 spent two weeks in hard quarantine after arriving in Melbourne. And unlike some who complained about being locked down, she got on with it, hitting balls against a mattress in her room and working with her trainer to keep her fitness up.

Among all 51 single players doing hard quarantine, only Brady made it past the third round.

Now, the lockdown warrior faces the ultimate test against Osaka, who beat her in the U.S. Open semi-finals 7-6(1), 3-6, 6-3.

"I don't know how I'm going to feel on Saturday," said Brady.

"I can say I can enjoy the moment and just try to play tennis and not really think too much about it, but there's going to be moments, there's going to be games, there's going to be points where I'm going to be thinking about, 'Wow, this could be my first Grand Slam title'."

The odds are against it though, with Osaka on high morale for crushing Serena Williams in two sets in the semifinal and also because she reached the final with a 20-match winning streak.

"For me, I have this mentality that people don't remember the runners-up," said 2019 champion Osaka after leaving a defeated Williams in tears.

"You might, but the winner's name is the one that's engraved."

Once prone to the occasional breakdown on court, Osaka has been all business at Melbourne Park and paid tribute to her coach Wim Fissette and team for helping her forge a stronger mental game.

As the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam title, Osaka said she wanted to pay her team back with another trophy.

"Of course, it's nice to see your name on a trophy or your name on a wall," said Osaka, who holds a 2-0 record against Brady in WTA Tour events.

"But I think bigger than that, I feel like I'm playing with a different purpose for this trip."

"I just want to do really well as a vessel for everyone's hard work."

After surviving match points in a tense fourth round clash with last year's finalist Garbine Muguruza, the Japanese contender moved up a gear to thrash Taiwanese surprise package Hsieh Su-wei before ending Williams' bid for a 24th Grand Slam.

For the first time in her career, Osaka will head into a major final as the more experienced player, though she dismissed the idea that experience would tell the tale on Saturday.

"I feel like experience is important because you can draw on the things you didn't think you did well in the past and memories," Osaka said. 

"But at the same time, I acknowledge that not having experience is also good because I didn't have experience when I won my first Slam. There's a certain hard-headedness that comes with not winning a Slam before. There are two sides to every story."

(With input from agencies)