(Reuters) -The U.S. Open’s fourth round continues on Monday, with Coco Gauff set to face a resurgent Naomi Osaka and defending men’s champion Jannik Sinner playing the tricky Alexander Bublik.
Felix Auger-Aliassime, who beat third seed Alexander Zverev, battles the odds again as he faces Andrey Rublev.
TOP WOMEN’S MATCH: NAOMI OSAKA V COCO GAUFF
Gauff was a 15-year-old wild card on a dream run at the U.S. Open in 2019 when she first played Osaka, the defending champion at the time. Unsurprisingly, Osaka crushed the American in the third-round clash.
Gauff avenged her defeat months later at the Australian Open, where her straight-sets win over Osaka further confirmed her immense potential.
While four-times Grand Slam champion Osaka is still slowly rediscovering her best form following her 16-month maternity break, Gauff is a double major winner.
Just as 27-year-old Osaka has new wind in her sails, reaching the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in over four years, she faces Gauff again but the young wild card from six years ago is now among the top contenders in New York.
“I remember just knowing that she was going to be a really great player, which I was right,” Japan’s Osaka said about their first match. “She’s like the main star of the U.S. Open.”
Third seed Gauff said their rematch can go either way.
“It would be a cool kind of deja vu type of situation, but hopefully it will be a different result,” the 21-year-old said.
TOP MEN’S MATCH: JANNIK SINNER V ALEXANDER BUBLIK
Defending champion Sinner dropped his first set in the tournament in his third-round clash with Denis Shapovalov, but the world number one rallied to win the next three to ease any concerns that fans may have had.
“It’s normal, you know. You cannot always go… every match is so difficult. Every challenge is so difficult,” said the 24-year-old Sinner, who struggled on serve against Shapovalov.
Italy’s Sinner, who is aiming to win his fifth major, next faces an opponent on the rise. Kazakhstan’s Bublik, who overcame 14th seed Tommy Paul in the third round, has captured three ATP titles this year and reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time.
“Winning against him is very difficult,” Sinner said. “He won the last encounter against me on grass … obviously a big, big server and very unpredictable.”
Although Sinner has won four of their six previous meetings, Bublik, who is yet to drop serve in this U.S. Open campaign, has won two of their last three matches.
“That’s tough. Really tough,” Bublik said about facing Sinner again. “In the five-set format I haven’t (beaten him) yet, but I’ll try to use my chances.”
AUGER-ALIASSIME BRAVES THE ODDS AGAIN
Canada’s Auger-Aliassime, whose form has dipped in the last three years, delivered one of the biggest upsets of the tournament so far when he beat German third seed Zverev in the third round.
The former semi-finalist had shown signs of improvement this year, winning two ATP titles and scoring wins over top-ranked players like Taylor Fritz and Daniil Medvedev, before knocking out the former finalist at Flushing Meadows.
“It’s been a work in progress, and I feel like tonight everything came together very nicely, and all the things I’ve been working on have paid off tonight,” Auger-Aliassime said after his win over Zverev.
But as the 25-year-old 25th seed bids to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final since the 2022 Australian Open, he faces 15th seed Andrey Rublev, who has beaten him seven times in their eight previous encounters.
Russia’s Rublev, however, is cautious about facing a familiar foe.
“He has a really good serve and a good forehand… you need to be really patient and wait for your moment, because all the matches that I played with Felix were tough,” Rublev said.
U.S. OPEN ORDER OF PLAY ON MONDAY (prefix number denotes seeding)
ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM (1530 GMT/1130 AM ET)
25-Felix Auger-Aliassime (Canada) v 15-Andrey Rublev (Russia)
23-Naomi Osaka (Japan) v 3-Coco Gauff (U.S.)
1-Jannik Sinner (Italy) v 23-Alexander Bublik (Kazakhstan)
8-Amanda Anisimova (U.S.) v 18-Beatriz Haddad-Maia (Brazil)
LOUIS ARMSTRONG STADIUM (1500 GMT/11 AM ET)
Leandro Riedi (Switzerland) 8-Alex de Minaur (Australia)
13-Ekaterina Alexandrova (Russia) v 2-Iga Swiatek (Poland)
10-Lorenzo Musetti (Italy) v Jaume Munar (Spain)
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in BengaluruEditing by Toby Davis)
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