Osaka breaks through to clinch rematch with Gauff

Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka set up a high-profile showdown between two past title winners in the U.S. Open’s fourth round with victories Saturday.

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FORMER CHAMPION Naomi Osaka hasn't gone this far in a major since 2021.

Their meeting on Monday, with a quarterfinal berth at stake, is a rematch from 2019, when Gauff was a 15-year-old making her main-draw debut at Flushing Meadows and Osaka was the reigning champion.

Osaka won that one in straight sets, then consoled a teary Gauff on the sideline and encouraged her to speak to an Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd that was pulling for the young American.

“I kind of see her as a little sister,” Osaka said Saturday, “so it's kind of cool to be playing her here again.”

Osaka 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 after Gauff made it that far at the U.S. Open for the fourth consecutive year with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over No. 28 Magdalena Frech.

Sinner rallies to beat Shapovalov