“I kind of see her as a little sister,” Osaka said Saturday, “so it’s kind of cool to be playing her here again.”
She advanced to her first fourth-round match at any major since the 2021 Australian Open by eliminating No. 15 seed Daria Kasatkina 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 at Louis Armstrong Stadium, after Gauff made it that far at the US Open for the fourth consecutive year with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over No. 28 Magdalena Frech at Ashe.
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“It’s been a really long journey,” Osaka said during her on-court interview, “but I’m glad to be here now.”
Osaka, who was born in Japan and moved with her family to the United States as a kid, joked to the Armstrong fans: “Can somebody come to the match and cheer for me? It’s kind of tough playing an American here, but I hope you guys adopted me, as well.”
So much has happened to both Osaka and Gauff since that headline-worthy encounter six years ago in New York.
The third-seeded Gauff, 21, is now a two-time Grand Slam champ, including at the US Open in 2023, and a real star.
No. 23 Osaka, 27, owns four major titles — including at the US Open in 2018 and 2020 — and has been ranked No. 1. She was among the athletes at the forefront of conversations about mental health, opening up at the 2021 French Open about dealing with anxiety and depression, then taking a series of breaks from the tour.
“Naomi and I, we aren’t super close or anything, but we’re definitely friendly with each other,” Gauff said. “I support her from afar in all the things that she’s done — on and off the court.”
Gauff has won three of their four head-to-head matches since that unforgettable night in Ashe.
“I remember it was a tough moment for me, because it was a hyped-up match…I guess I put way too much pressure on myself, thinking I maybe had a chance in that moment to actually do something, which I definitely did, but I think it was just I felt more expectation than I should than maybe belief,” Gauff said.
“It would be a cool, kind of, deja vu type of situation,” Gauff said Saturday, “but hopefully it will be a different result.”
Other women who reached the fourth round included No. 11 Karolina Muchova — a US Open semifinalist in 2023 and 2024 and the woman who beat Venus Williams in the first round this year — and No. 27 Marta Kostyuk.
Men moving on included top-seeded Jannik Sinner, who overcame some lapses to take his US Open title defense to the fourth round with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 27 Denis Shapovalov.
The 24-year-old Italian had won 14 sets in a row in New York since dropping one in a victory against 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev a year ago.
Against Shapovalov, Sinner double-faulted to close the opener, which earlier featured a remarkable 30-stroke point in which both men hit drop shots. Sinner took that point by sprinting back to the baseline and twisting his body to deliver a lob winner that floated just out of Shapovalov’s reach.
After rebounding to even the match at a set apiece, Sinner found himself trailing 3-0, love-30 in the third after Shapovalov — a lefthander from Canada who was a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2021 — grabbed 14 of 17 points.
From there, Sinner took nine games in a row to seize control.
No. 10 Lorenzo Musetti, whose opponent in an all-Italian match, No. 23 Flavio Cobolli, stopped because of right arm pain while trailing, 2-0, in the third set.
AloJapan.com