In 2019, the US Open saw an early-tournament match made in heaven. Naomi Osaka, top seed and defending champion, would take on Coco Gauff, then just 15 and fresh from a breakout performance by reaching the Wimbledon fourth round. It was a contest between two huge fan favourites: the experienced world-beater against a prodigal teenager making her debut at the Arthur Ashe Stadium under the lights.

Osaka delivered a beatdown on the day, defeating Gauff 6-3, 6-0 and then sportingly comforting the teenager as she broke down in tears after feeling the heat of the spotlight for the first time in her life.

If the anticipation was that the match would spur a rivalry for the future, that could not be further from later reality. Gauff slowly mounted her ascension to the top of the women’s game while Osaka’s career appeared to be tapering off after dealing with mental health issues and a 16-month break for pregnancy and childbirth. With their careers diverging, it became a rivalry that was not meant to be. But six years later, the New York stars have aligned once again.

This week in New York, above all else, the 21-year-old American, a two-time Major winner who won this tournament in 2023, has shown a spectacular appetite to gamble. Going through a coaching change to completely revamp her serve just one week ahead of her most important tournament of the year, under the watchful gaze of daily expectant crowds, has taken its toll on her.

She needed to grit and grind to come through in three sets in her opener against Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic, and then broke down in tears midway through the first set of her second-round victory over Donna Vekic. A much-needed boring, dominant 6-3, 6-1 win was found against Poland’s Magdalena Frech on Saturday to finally set up a match where the expectations will not fall entirely on her.

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