{"id":17861,"date":"2025-09-02T06:39:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T06:39:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/?p=17861"},"modified":"2025-09-02T06:39:41","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T06:39:41","slug":"naomi-osaka-defeats-coco-gauff-at-the-us-open-to-reach-her-first-major-quarterfinal-since-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/02\/naomi-osaka-defeats-coco-gauff-at-the-us-open-to-reach-her-first-major-quarterfinal-since-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Naomi Osaka defeats Coco Gauff at the US Open to reach her first major quarterfinal since 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Naomi Osaka<\/a> eliminated Coco Gauff<\/a> 6-3, 6-2 at the US Open<\/a> with a far more confident and consistent brand of tennis Monday to reach her first grand slam quarterfinal in more than 4 1\/2 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The No. 23-seeded Osaka was better throughout than No. 3 Gauff, whose repeated mistakes really made the difference in Arthur Ashe Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was super locked in, to be honest. I was really locked in,\u201d said Osaka, a 27-year-old who was born in Japan and moved to the US with her family at age 3. \u201cI felt like everyone wanted to watch a really great match, and I hope that\u2019s what you got.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From her side, it certainly was. Osaka displayed the demeanor \u2014 and, importantly, the big serve and booming strokes \u2014 that have carried her to four major championships, all on hard courts. That includes titles at the U.S. Open in 2018 and 2020, and at the Australian Open in 2019 and 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was at the French Open later in 2021 that Osaka helped spark a global conversation about mental health by revealing she felt anxiety and depression. She then took a series of breaks from the tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That most recent trophy at Melbourne Park was the last time Osaka had even made it as far as the fourth round at any Slam event until this match against Gauff, a 21-year-old from Florida who owns two major trophies. The first came at Flushing Meadows in 2023 and the second at the French Open this June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Osaka, this marks a real return to her best play since she returned to the tour after a 17-month maternity leave<\/a>. Her child, Shai, was born in July 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a little sensitive and I don\u2019t want to cry, but honestly, I just had so much fun out here,\u201d said Osaka, who first played Gauff back at the 2019 U.S. Open, also in Ashe, and won that one, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was in the stands like two months after I gave birth to my daughter, watching Coco. I just really wanted an opportunity to come out here and play,\u201d Osaka told the crowd. \u201cThis is my favorite court in the world, and it means so much for me to be back here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Coco<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Coco Gauff struggled throughout Monday’s match, hitting 21 more unforced errors than Naomi Osaka. Robert Deutsch\/Imagn Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gauff came out jittery at the start. Her serve was fine; other strokes were the problem. She finished with 33 unforced errors \u2014 way more than Osaka\u2019s 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trying to rework her serve during this tournament with the help of biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan, Gauff got broken right off the bat and was down 2-0 after just five minutes, dropping eight of the initial nine points while making five unforced errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether because it\u2019s what the prematch strategy dictated or because of how the beginning unfolded, Gauff cranked up the velocity in her second service game. The results were unimpeachable. She hit four first serves in \u2014 each arriving no slower than 110 mph, with a high of 115 mph \u2014 and held at love with a pair of aces and a pair of service winners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, this is where the key difference was: Osaka used her big forehand, her best stroke, to go after Gauff\u2019s forehand, her worst stroke, and it worked wonders. By the end of the first set, Gauff had made 16 unforced errors and Osaka only five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Osaka slapped her left thigh between points and repeatedly told herself, \u201cCome on! Come on!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That positive body language was quite a contrast to Gauff\u2019s. She repeatedly would put her palms up or gesture toward her team in the stands, looking confused or upset.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Naomi Osaka eliminated Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-2 at the US Open with a far more confident and consistent brand of tennis Monday to reach her first grand slam quarterfinal in more than 4 1\/2 years. The No. 23-seeded Osaka was better throughout than No. 3 Gauff, whose repeated mistakes really made the difference in Arthur Ashe Stadium. \u201cI was super […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17862,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-international","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Screenshot-2025-09-02-023500.png?fit=623%2C464","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17861"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17863,"href":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17861\/revisions\/17863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}