China Open 2024: Osaka Injured, Gauff Escapes Big Eight

Coco Gauff stepped into the quarter-finals because Naomi Osaka was injured (Instagram/@cocogauff).

JAKARTA Coco Gauff got a ticket to the quarter-finals of the China Open 2024 after her opponent from Japan, Naomi Osaka, withdrew from the match due to injury.

When the former world number one could not continue the match, the two players were in a draw on Tuesday, October 1, 2024, WIB night.

Osaka decided to withdraw due to problems with the lower back.

"I hope Naomi recovers quickly. Nobody wants to win a game like this," said Gauff as quoted by BBC Sport.

The problem made Osaka, who has a collection of four Grand Slam titles, call physiotherapists in the first set. However, he continued to struggle and managed to win the set with a score of 6-3.

Gauff, who won his first Grand Slam career at the US Open 2023, then replied by breaking service at the first chance in the second set.

Osaka immediately responded and even got a 4-3 break advantage. However, Gauff got up and broke the serve twice to win three games in a row and closed the set with a score of 6-4.

Gauff, who is the fourth seed in the tournament, will next face Ukraine's Yulia Starobtseva, who eliminated Russian tennis player Anna Kalinskaya.

This achievement is the second consecutive quarter-finals that Gauff has scored in this event. Last year, he managed to get through this round, but ran aground in the semifinals against Iga Swiatek.

Swiatek, from Poland, who advanced until the final round then came out as champions after stopping Russian tennis player Liudmila Samsonova in a two-set fight.