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Naomi Osaka simply doesn’t lose when she gets to Grand Slam quarterfinals

Naomi Osaka, of Japan, returns a shot against Coco Gauff, of the United States, during the fourth round of the US Open tennis championships, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Naomi Osaka, of Japan, returns a shot against Coco Gauff, of the United States, during the fourth round of the US Open tennis championships, Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

By HOWARD FENDRICH / AP Tennis Writer 4 min read

NEW YORK (AP) — Once Naomi Osaka is in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament, look out.

For a while, it was getting there that was the problem.

Right now, Osaka appears to be back at her best, and she most definitively is back at that stage of a major, getting ready to face Karolina Muchova at the U.S. Open on Wednesday for a spot in the semifinals.

It’s the first time Osaka — who has been ranked No. 1 and now is seeded No. 23 — has made it this far at one of the four most important events in tennis since the Australian Open in early 2021. That was also the last time she won a Slam trophy.

So far in her career, the 27-year-old Osaka has left with the championship every time she got past the fourth round at any major, something she did at Flushing Meadows on Monday with a dominant win against No. 3 seed Coco Gauff by a 6-3, 6-2 score in barely more than an hour.