The blockbuster contest between 4th-seeded Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka promised to be the match of the China Open, but, at a set all, the encounter ended in anti-climax as a back injury forced the Japanese former World No 1 to retire.
I wasn’t sure if it was her hip or back, I just knew that, towards the end, she could barely jump on her serve, and I really saw it was hampering her movement a lot. So I knew that it was something that, in the moment, was probably bad but, hopefully, it’s something that’s not a long-term thing. Towards the end of the second set, even if you saw that last point, I was just trying to keep the ball in because I knew what was going on. But I didn’t expect her to retire at that moment, honestly. Coco Gauff
The 20-year old American helped to carry Osaka’s bags off the court, and then said: “It was a good match up until this point. I wish Naomi a speedy recovery. No one wants to win a match like this, especially one-set all.
“Overall I tried my best. It wasn’t my best tennis.”
It was a much-anticipated 5th meeting between the two, the first since 2022, and Osaka was within sight of a memorable win when she broke the Gauff serve to lead 6-3, 4-3, but she then lost the next 3 games, and the second set, before calling it a day.
It had been an encouraging week for Osaka, who was playing her first tournament under new coach Patrick Mouratoglou, and she was the better player for most of the two sets.
Osaka was bidding to capture her 4th consecutive match win for the first time since her come-back from maternity leave.
After an exchange of service breaks to open the match, Osaka extended her lead to 3-1 after a pair of baseline errors from Gauff, but, after getting broken for a second time, the Japanese called the trainer for a short chat on the 3-2 change-over.
Osaka looked cautious with her movement for the next 2 games, and took advantage of Gauff’s more error-prone play to earn a 3rd break before serving out the set.
Gauff broke to build a 2-0 lead in the second, but Osaka coolly clawed her way back, and, with the American serving at 3-3, 30-30, the 4-time Grand Slam champion benefitted from her 6th double-fault of the night, and broke to lead 4-3.
Naomi Osaka pulled out of her Last 16 match against Coco Gauff with a back injury in Beijing
© Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
Osaka then coughed up her first, rather inopportune, double-fault of the match on break point to hand back her advantage, and Gauff held to love to lead 5-4.
With the Japanese now struggling to land her first serves, Gauff pounced, breaking the former World No 1 to take the second, after which Osaka promptly retired, greeting the 20-year old American with a hug and an apology, and sending her into her second consecutive China Open quarter-final.
“I wasn’t sure if it was her hip or back, I just knew that, towards the end, she could barely jump on her serve, and I really saw it was hampering her movement a lot,” Gauff said, “So I knew that it was something that, in the moment, was probably bad but, hopefully, it’s something that’s not a long-term thing.
“Towards the end of the second set, even if you saw that last point, I was just trying to keep the ball in because I knew what was going on. But I didn’t expect her to retire at that moment, honestly.
“I just told her she should be proud of herself. It’s not easy. I think this is her first time winning three matches in a tournament [for a while]. So, physically, you can do all the running you want but match-fit is different.
“Hopefully, she’ll be fine. I think she’s signed up for Wuhan.”
With the win, Gauff edged ahead in their head-to-head to lead Osaka 3-2, with all 5 meetings coming on hard court.
For a spot in her first semi-final since Berlin, Gauff will next face Ukrainian qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva, who continued her brilliant run by upsetting 10th seed Anna Kalinskaya from Russia, 7-5 6-0.
Gauff is playing her first tournament after adding Matt Daly to her team, and she has been vocal about her intent to use the end of the season to work on her serve and baseline aggression.
“I’m not focused on results at all at this point in the season,” Gauff said. “It’s one of those sacrifices. It’s great to be in the quarters, I probably didn’t expect it to be honest. But it’s one of those things where you sacrifice to get better in the long term.
“I’m treating this tournament as practice, and everything is a plus.”
