This won’t be the year for Naomi Osaka to replicate her past triumphs at the U.S. Open.
Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina ended Osaka’s run on Monday afternoon in the Round of 16 at Louis Armstrong Stadium, 6-1, 6-4 in 66 minutes. Rybakina, seeded second overall, will face China’s Qinwen Zheng in the quarterfinal.
Both sets turned on a pair of double faults from Osaka, who struggled to assert herself on serve throughout. At 2-1 in the first set, Osaka double-faulted twice for Rybakina’s first break of the afternoon — and didn’t win another game for the rest of a set that took all of 22 minutes to complete.
Then at 3-all in the second set, she missed four straight serves, giving Rybakina another window of opportunity.
That was quickly capitalized on, and before a heavily pro-Osaka crowd had truly settled in, it was match point.
