Naomi Osaka reveals she thought to herself that Coco Gauff would be "a great player" one day during their first meeting.
If you can recall, Gauff drew major attention to herself in the summer of 2019 when she as a 15-year-old girl qualified for Wimbledon and even upset Venus Williams en route to making the round-of-16 at The Championships.
When Gauff arrived in New York for her US Open debut two months later, she had been one of the main attractions as the locals wanted to see what the fuss was about. Andthe then-15-year-old teenager impressed, beating Anastasia Potapova and Timea Babos to set up a third-round meeting against Osaka, who was the defending champion at the time.
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Exactly six years after beating Gauff 6-3 6-0, Osaka is set to meet the American again on the Arthur Ashe Stadium in the round-of-16 stage at Flushing Meadows. But this time, the circumstances are drastically different as the 21-year-old home player is now a two-time Grand Slam champion and enters the match as the favorite.
Osaka reveals what was her first impression of Gauff
My recollections were that I remember just knowing that she was going to be a really great tennis player, which I was right. But yeah, I mean, she was what, 15 at the time, and I thought she just handled herself really well. And I knew she was going to be back there. So now to be playing her again after six years, I dont know if that makes me old. But yeah, just to be at this point of my life and to be playing her again is honestly, for me, feels kind of special," the 27-year-old Japanese recalled.
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Shortly after the 2019 US Open meeting versus Osaka, Gauff became a WTA champion in Linz. Since then, the American has won eight additional titles - including two Grand Slams - and has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the world.
Needless to say, Osaka's prediction about the American was 100 percent correct.
