Naomi Osaka reveals she thought to herself that Coco Gauff would be “a great player” one day during their first meeting.
If you can recall, Gauff drew major attention to herself in the summer of 2019 when she as a 15-year-old girl qualified for Wimbledon and even upset Venus Williams en route to making the round-of-16 at The Championships.
When Gauff arrived in New York for her US Open debut two months later, she had been one of the main attractions as the locals wanted to see what the fuss was about. And the then-15-year-old teenager impressed, beating Anastasia Potapova and Timea Babos to set up a third-round meeting against Osaka, who was the defending champion at the time.
Exactly six years after beating Gauff 6-3 6-0, Osaka is set to meet the American again on the Arthur Ashe Stadium in the round-of-16 stage at Flushing Meadows. But this time, the circumstances are drastically different as the 21-year-old home player is now a two-time Grand Slam champion and enters the match as the favorite.
Osaka reveals what was her first impression of Gauff
“My recollections were that I remember just knowing that she was going to be a really great tennis player, which I was right. But yeah, I mean, she was what, 15 at the time, and I thought she just handled herself really well. And I knew she was going to be back there. So 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,” the 27-year-old Japanese recalled.
Shortly after the 2019 US Open meeting versus Osaka, Gauff became a WTA champion in Linz. Since then, the American has won eight additional titles – including two Grand Slams – and has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the world.
Needless to say, Osaka’s prediction about the American was 100 percent correct.
After claiming the Toronto title and becoming the youngest American since Andy Roddick in 2004 to win a Masters title, Shelton had high hopes for the US Open. And truth be told, the American tennis community hoped that the world No. 6 could make a run and become the first American man since Roddick in 2003 to win a Grand Slam title.
Shelton was progressing nicely early in the tournament, registering back-to-back straight-set wins. But then against Adrian Mannarino, the American appeared to be physically struggling. And after Mannarino won the fourth of their third-round match to send it to a decider, the home star retired due to a shoulder injury.
Roddick to Shelton: Do not take a three-week injury and turn it into a six-month injuryOn his podcast, the 2003 US Open winner admitted that he was heartbroken for the 22-year-old American.
“If Ben doesn’t have a serve, he can’t make a run to win this tournament. The last thing I want to do is take a three-week injury and turn it into a six-month injury, right? And that is not a romantic way that fans like to deal with sports, right? We want everyone to be Willis Reed, right? We want everyone to be you play through the pain,” the former world No. 1 said on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast.
Just before coming to the US Open, Shelton won the biggest title of his career and achieved a career-high ranking of No. 6 in the world.
“It is hard to be sober in decision-making. Do not, if you’re Ben, after all the progress you’ve made this year, do not take a three-week injury and turn it into a six-month in injury,” Roddick added.
It remains to be seen for how long Shelton will be sidelined and if he will be ready to start his Asian swing in time.
After losing a tight first set, Ostapenko’s level completely collapsed and she picked up a 5-7 1-6 loss to Townsend in the US Open second round. However, the main attention wasn’t on the scoreline, but on a tense moment that happened between the two shortly after the match ended, when the Latvian started pointing her finger at the American and saying that she had “no education” and “no class.
The tennis community ripped Ostapenko’s behavior as completely unacceptable, and the 2017 French Open champion was even called out by Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka.
Williams, who served as a role model to Black players such as Townsend, was in action on Saturday and won a doubles match alongside Leylah Fernandez. Afterward, the 45-year-old American tennis icon was asked if she had any thoughts about the ugly incident that happened at Flushing Meadows.
Williams: A lot of drama… Townsend handled it amazingly, I’m rooting for her”My thoughts about it? It was a lot of drama. It was a lot of drama. I thought Taylor handled it amazing. I really did. I just thought with her as a mom how she handled it, her son will be watching. Her son is watching. She handled it with class, a situation that was not so classy (smiling). Just moved on and won again. So she’s handling it amazing. I’m rooting for her. She’s a wonderful person, a great mom. I hope she can keep going,” Williams said.
Initially, Ostapenko remained adamant that Townsend disrespected her with some of her on-court actions. But over the weekend, the 28-year-old Latvian posted a written message on Instagram, where she apologized. However, when asked about the apology, the American said that the Latvian didn’t reach out to her personally.
Naomi Osaka has a kind request for the US Open crowd ahead of her match against Coco Gauff as the Japanese tennis star politely asked to have some support despite playing against the biggest local star.
On Saturday, top-ranked American female tennis player Gauff beat Magdalena Frech to reach the US Open round-of-16. A few hours later, Osaka overcame Daria Kasatkina to also book a last-16 spot. As a result, fans will have a chance to watch two US Open champions go head-to-head on Monday.
As you probably know, Gauff enjoys massive support at Flushing Meadows – and there isn’t anything surprising about that, considering that she is the face of American women’s tennis.
“Can somebody come to the match and cheer for me? I mean it’s kind of tough playing an American here, but I hope you’ve adopted me as well,” the 27-year-old Japanese asked the New York crowd ahead of her round-of-16 match.
‘Patient’ Osaka hopes to continue with her strong formBy beating Kasatkina, Osaka made her first Grand Slam second week as a mother.
“Since I’ve come back, I kind of wanted everything to happen really quickly. So I think it took—like I keep saying after Wimbledon—but for me to just completely not even think about results anymore and just try to focus on every match by itself. And I did good in Montreal and now we’re here. So I’m just really happy about that, definitely pleased. I think Thomas [Wiktorowski] has been really cool to work with too. So as a journey it’s not something that I really pictured, but I’m glad to be living it,” the four-time Grand Slam champion explained.
Even before kicking off her post-pregnancy comeback, Osaka said her main goal was to win more Grand Slams and dedicate them to her daughter Shai. Now, the former world No. 1 is four wins away from achieving her goal. But first, she will have to successfully complete the Gauff challenge.
