Naomi Osaka routs Coco Gauff at US Open: 'These are the moments that I play tennis for'

Japanese star brushes aside American third seed while men's No 1 Sinner ruthlessly disposes of Bublik in New York

Naomi Osaka celebrates after beating Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-2 at the US Open. AFP

Naomi Osaka secured a spot in US Open quarter-finals after routing home hope Coco Gauff in straight sets at Flushing Meadows.

The highly-anticipated clash ended up being a one-sided affair as two-time champion Osaka brushed aside the third seed 6-3, 6-2 on the Labor Day holiday in New York.

Osaka broke in the very first game in front of an expectant Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd and was untouchable on serve in a ruthless display against a misfiring Gauff, who hit 33 unforced errors.

It was Osaka's biggest win by ranking since beating then-world No 1 Ashleigh Barty at the 2019 China Open.

“This is my favourite court in the world and it means so much to me to be back today,” said Osaka, who is enjoying her deepest run at a major since winning her second Australian Open title in 2021.

“This is kind of uncharted territory at this point of my career. “I'm just enjoying it. I'm having fun.”

It has been a painstaking climb back towards the top of the game for Osaka, who returned to tennis last year following the birth of her daughter in 2023.

“I was in the stands two months after I gave birth watching Coco and I just really wanted an opportunity to come out here and play,” said four-time Slam champion Osaka, who plays Czech 11th seed Karolina Muchova in Wednesday's quarter-finals.

Gauff conceded the mental toll of a challenging first week and the efforts to remodel her faltering serve had weighed heavily on her.

“I felt so discombobulated on the court, because I was serving well but not returning well. The last two years, everybody can agree that's like a weird thought,” said Gauff.

“There's a lot of positives to take from this tournament and I'm trying to be positive.

“I promise you that, I don't feel that way right now, but I am not going to let this crush me.”

Second seed Iga Swiatek returned to form, racing to a 6-3, 6-1 win over Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia.

After Swiatek was taken to three sets in her second-round match with the unseeded Suzan Lamens and took nearly two hours with a tiebreaker to defeat Anna Kalinskaya in Round 3, she needed just 64 minutes to reach the last eight for the second year in a row.

Swiatek had seven aces and 21 winners to No 13 seed Alexandrova's 11 in her runaway win.

“I felt like I'm really in my bubble, in the zone,” Swiatek said. “Sometimes I was making risky decisions, and I think I forced the ball to go in.”

Swiatek will face eighth seed Amanda Anisimova, who sailed to a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil.

Seven-and-a-half weeks after the American suffered the worst Wimbledon final defeat in more than a century, failing to win a game against Swiatek], she will take on the Pole again.

“I'm really excited and looking forward to it,” she said of her clash with Swiatek.

“At this stage of the game, you're going to play a really tough opponent regardless. So, to be able to have a rematch or to be able to face her again and give myself another chance, I'm really, really happy about that.

“I feel like it's going to be a really tough challenge, but I feel like I've been playing well.

In the men's draw, Jannik Sinner claimed his quickest Grand Slam victory with a brutal destruction of Alexander Bublik.

The world No 1 dropped his first set of the tournament to Denis Shapovalov in the third round and had looked a little vulnerable, but he needed just an hour and 21 minutes to race to a 6-1 6-1 6-1 win against Bublik.

Sinner's winning run at hard-court grand slams now stands at 25 matches – only two short of Novak Djokovic's best – and he will take on Lorenzo Musetti in the last eight in the first all-Italian men's quarter-final at a Slam.

Tenth seed Musetti is having his best run at Flushing Meadows and was almost as dominant as Sinner, beating Spain's Jaume Munar 6-3 6-0 6-1.

Alex De Minaur hopes he can finally break through the Grand Slam quarter-final barrier after setting up a last-eight clash with Felix Auger-Aliassime.

The Australian is through to this round for the fifth time in his last seven major tournaments and sixth time overall, but he has never been further.

After racing to a 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 win over Swiss qualifier Leandro Riedi at Flushing Meadows, De Minaur said: “I've always thought that the first job is to get there, right, and give myself the opportunity.

“If I bum out early, I'm never going to get the chance, so at least I've got the chance in front of me. It's about embracing it.