By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Saturday, March 22, 2025
Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka each showed strong closing kick to move to within one round of a potential quarterfinal clash in Miami.
Photo credit: Robert Prange/Getty
South Florida is a hothouse for tennis talent.
A pair of Florida’s finest public park players—Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka—sprung to baseline bloom in Miami today.
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The third-ranked Gauff surged through the final four games fending off former No. 3 Maria Sakkari 6-2, 6-4 on Hard Rock Stadium Court to reach the Miami Open fourth round for the third time.
Delray Beach baseliner Gauff, who grew up training on Delray Beach’s public park courts with her dad, beat Sakkari for the second time this month following her 7-6(1), 6-2 Indian Wells win.
"I was just trying to be loose out there," Gauff told the media in Miami. "I think in the past, there's a little bit of pressure playing home. But I feel like because, I don't know, I feel like I play my best tennis when I'm playing relaxed and playing loose. I think that's what I was trying to emulate today."
Playing amid heavier humidity today, Gauff said the match followed the same script.
“I think it was a similar match,” Gauff told Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj afterward. “Honestly, a couple of points go her way in the second set it could have easily been 6-3 for her.
“I don’t think each of us did anything different but sometimes simple works.”
It was the 10th meeting between the pair with Gauff leveling their head-to-head series at five wins apiece.
Both Gauff and Sakkari are agile athletes, two of the fastest movers on Tour and both tend show more conviction striking their two-handed backhands.
Eye-popping athleticism created some pulsating rallies.
Down 3-4, Gauff challenged the Greek’s forehand wing and reaped rewards winning eight of 10 points to edge ahead 5-4.
Though the 51st-ranked Sakkari was up 40-30 in the final game, she netted a forehand struck while moving backward. Forehand frailty hurt as she poked a forehand down the line wide to face match point.
A tremendous running dig from Gauff extended the point and Sakkari slid a smash long as the pride of Delray Beach moved on to a fourth-round clash vs. either veteran Pole Magda Linette or Czechia qualifier Linda Fruhvirtova for her first career Miami Open quarterfinal.
On the adjacent Buch Buchholz Court, 1 Osaka was tossing her Yonex racquet around in frustration facing a 2-4 third-set deficit to American Hailey Baptiste.
Then Osaka threw everything she had at the powerful wild card.
Digging in, Osaka reeled off the final four games in a row, breaking Baptiste twice in succession for a gritty 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 victory.
It comes one round after Osaka played proactive tennis sweeping talented 24th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday night.
Afterward, Osaka said though she was “embarrassed” for the racquet-tossing antics, she was proud of the fire and desire she showed battling back.
"Today was an emotional day for me," Osaka told the media in Miami. "I was saying that I'm a little embarrassed for how much I threw my racquet, which is something that I don't like to be known for. So very sorry to Yonex about that.
"But I also feel like I was trying to be really positive and really vocal.
"So I might have been a little annoying to her on that end, too. But I felt like I needed to do that to, I guess, push myself to continue. In that regard, this match was very difficult."
Osaka and her older sister, Mari Osaka, grew up training on the public park courts in Florida.
The four-time Grand Slam champion said she hopes these two wins will help reinforce her identity on Tour as a fighter to the finish—something she said was lacking in her mental game last season.
“I do think my match against Samsonova was great tennis,” Osaka said. “Compared to last year, I feel like I’m fighting for matches that I wouldn’t have fought for. [I am] gaining the reputation that if you're going to beat me, you’re going to have to fight for it which should be difficult.”
Next up for Osaka figures to be a fourth-round fight against Wimbledon and French Open finalist Jasmine Paolini.
Should Osaka and Gauff both prevail in the fourth round, they would square off in a blockbuster quarterfinal clash of women who honed their skills on Florida’s hard courts.
"For me, I look around the site or I'm playing and I feel the energy of the audience," Osaka told the media in Miami. "There's no place I'd rather be. I want to live to fight another match. So that's kind of the train of thoughts that I think of."