Elena Rybakina Dominates Naomi Osaka in US Open Fourth Round
Naomi Osaka’s latest New York run ended with a thud, not a roar.
The two-time US Open champion was swept aside by Elena Rybakina on Monday, beaten 6-1, 6-4 in a fourth-round match that underlined the Kazakh’s growing authority at the top of the women’s game and left Osaka still searching for a way back to the summit she once owned.
Rybakina in command
This was Rybakina at full stride. The No. 2 seed, already the reigning Australian Open champion, stormed through the opening set 6-1, ripping through Osaka’s serve and rhythm before the former world No. 1 had time to settle.
The second set brought more resistance. Osaka fought harder on serve, held her ground in the baseline exchanges, and tried to stretch the rallies. The scoreline tightened. The tone did not. Rybakina kept landing her first serve, kept stepping in on the short ball, and kept Osaka under pressure.
The 27-year-old closed it out 6-4, sealing not just the match but her first-ever spot in the US Open quarterfinals. For a player who already owns titles at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, this feels like the next logical step in a career that is starting to circle every major trophy.
She is now edging closer to adding New York to that list.
Osaka’s stalled major year
For Osaka, this defeat continues a pattern that has defined her 2026 season at the majors. She has gone deep, but not deep enough.
She missed the Australian Open with an abdominal injury. At Roland Garros, she reached the fourth round. At Wimbledon, she pushed through to the quarterfinals. In New York, the site of her breakthrough titles in 2018 and 2020 and a semifinal run last year, she again fell short of the last eight.
Her path to Rybakina had already tested her nerve. On Saturday evening, Osaka survived a bruising third-round battle with Elise Mertens, edging the Belgian 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. That match demanded everything: long rallies, late-set composure, and the kind of problem-solving that once made her nearly untouchable on hard courts.
Two days later, she ran into a different kind of storm. Rybakina didn’t just hit through her; she set the terms. Osaka will now go a fifth consecutive year without a major title, a stark number for a player who once looked poised to dominate this era on hard courts.
A new threat on the horizon
Rybakina’s reward is a quarterfinal date with Qinwen Zheng on Wednesday, a matchup that suddenly feels loaded with significance.
Zheng arrives on the back of one of the standout wins of the tournament, a 7-5, 6-3 upset of No. 8 seed Iga Swiatek in Monday’s other fourth-round clash. That result not only ripped open this section of the draw, it also handed Rybakina a dangerous, surging opponent with nothing to lose and a statement victory already in her pocket.
Rybakina, though, now carries the aura of a player who expects to be in these positions. She has the Australian Open. She has Wimbledon. She has her first US Open quarterfinal.
The question now is whether anyone left in this draw can stop her from turning this breakthrough into another hard-court coronation.
