(August 30, 2025) FLUSHING, NY – It will be a clash of former US Open champions in the fourth round of the US Open on Labor Day as No. 3 Coco Gauff will take on No. 23 Naomi Osaka.
Gauff had few of the serving woes that have recently plagued her with her 6-3 6-1 win over No. 28 Magdalena Frech of Poland in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“It’s been like an emotional week … but I think I needed those tough moments to move forward,” said Gauff, “I was putting too much pressure on myself.”
Osaka had some serving issues in the second set of her 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 win over No. 15 Daria Kasatkina in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Gauff played an emotional match against Osaka back in 2019 when she lost to the woman from Japan 6-3, 6-0. Osaka comforted Gauff that night and had the American speak to the crowd with her.
“I remember it was a tough moment for me because it was a hyped-up match,” Gauff said. “I remember looking back at it. 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 that I should than maybe belief. Then when I played her in Australia, that was more belief than expectation.
“But yeah, Naomi and I, we aren’t super close or anything, but we’re definitely friendly with each other. I support her from afar in all the things that she’s done on and off the court.
“Yeah, if I were to play her, I’m imagining we would probably be on Ashe and at night. I’m just assuming. It would be a cool kind of deja vu type of situation, but hopefully it will be a different result.”
“I think honestly, yeah, when you’re 15, I always tell younger players that, like, the first time it’s very fresh and new, and so you feel just excited for every opportunity.
Then you start to do more interviews, and you start to be aware of what’s going on. I think Emma said this in an interview, like, aware of the negativity. You kind of get into that into your head with it.
“But for me I think I’ve been learning and have learned to just remember to stay on my path, and the only expectations I have are the ones that I have of myself. When I’m out there and I have those moments, it’s just me being authentically myself and who I am.
“Is that how I want to show up all the time? No, but I think for me it’s just a learning experience and showing people the ups and downs.
I” have been on this tour since I was 15, and I think I’ve done pretty well with the mental side of things. There are moments I wish I could show up better, but you know, when they happen, I think I just try to get up and be a better version of myself. Well, sometimes the next point, not even the next day.”
“My recollections were that I remember just knowing that she was going to be a really great tennis player, which I was right (laughing)” Osaka said to media. “But yeah, I mean, she was, what, 15 at the time? I thought she just handled herself really well, and I knew she was going to be back there.
“Now to be playing her again after six years, I don’t know if that makes me old, but yeah, just to be at this point of my life and to be playing her again is honestly, for me, feels kind of special.”
“I think everyone kind of already knew that about her, that she was going to be a really great tennis player.
“For me I feel like everyone’s journeys are so specific to them, and it’s been a real pleasure to see how she’s kind of navigated herself and been a role model to a lot of young people, even though she’s a young person herself.”
“Honestly, I don’t think I played that well, but I think mentally I was just trying to, like, fight for everything. I know that it was a little bit of an emotional roller coaster,” Osaka said in her news conference.
“Yeah, overall just happy to have won.”
“I think honestly since I’ve come back I kind of wanted everything to happen really quickly. So I think it took, I keep saying like after Wimbledon, but for me to just completely not even think about results anymore and just try to focus on every match by itself.
“I did good in Montreal, and now we’re here. I’m just really happy about that. Definitely pleased. I think Tomasz has been really cool to work with too.
“As a journey, it’s not something that I really pictured, but I’m glad to be living it.”
More to follow…
