Archive September 2, 2025

In a highly anticipated fourth round showdown between two former U.S. Open champions, Naomi Osaka put on a strong performance to defeat third seed Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-2.

Osaka&nbsp showed signs of her old brilliance on Monday, after years of bitter disappointment at the year’s final major, while 2023 champion Gauff struggled with her forehand and serve.

Osaka will next face Czech 11th seed Karolina Muchova in the semifinals of Flushing Meadows, which was the result of her first move in five years.

Four-time Grand Slam champion and 2020 champion, Osaka, who won in New York in 2018 and 2020 but failed to advance past the third round on her last three attempts, said, “The main thing I want to take away from this tournament is just smiling and having fun.”

“It’s really the most enjoyable when I play against the best players,” says one player.

The two fan favorites haven’t met in New York since their memorable 2019&nbsp, tussle when Gauff lost to Osaka at the age of 15, in a showdown on Monday.

As the two began to battle, with Osaka breaking Gauff from the baseline in the opening game in a superb first set, the fans who had been chattering all the way through the earlier match on Ashe ceased to speak.

Gauff attempted to rebuild her serve for many months, but she was let down by it once more when she made a double error on set point, one of five overall.

The American began making mistakes as she continued to blame them on Osaka for an unforced error in the sixth game of the second set. She vented her frustration toward her box during the final game, telling her coaches, “Nothing’s working.”

After Gauff burst into the net with a shot into the net on match point, the pair briefly embraced and Osaka grinned in a subdued celebration.

“I have some sensitivity,” I said. I’m not in tears, either. I thoroughly enjoyed my time out here,” Osaka said.

“Thank you so much to my team. They have been by my side despite what we have gone through.

Osaka’s revival was founded on faith.

Osaka has a history of winning the trophy in New York, and she will be hoping to keep that track record.

Before resuming Roland Garros to defend her mental well-being after disclosing her struggles with depression, she won the final of her four Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open in 2021.

Following an unexpected third-round defeat, the Japanese player announced that she would take a break from playing and then skipped Wimbledon before leaving the U.S. Open in tears. She also took a 2023 season-long maternity leave.

Following her maternity break, she finally looked to have regained her composure after making the Montreal final last month despite failing to make it past the third round of slams at her first seven attempts.

She never had any doubts about returning to this stage of the majors, despite the fact that her partnership with new coach Tomasz Wiktorowski appears to be working.

After displaying yet another bejeweled&nbsp, Labubu charm, she had named “Althea Glitterson” in honor of the late pioneer Gibson, she told reporters, “You have to imagine it, and then you have to believe it for it to actually come true.”

And despite her difficulties, Osaka, according to  , never thought about giving up the sport altogether.

She said, “It would be very frightening to hang up my racket for me permanently.” It’s like giving in to air, they say.

Swiatek enters quarters on foot.

Iga Swiatek, the former U.S. Open champion, beat 13th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 6-1, sealing her place in the quarterfinals in New York with a laser-focused effort.

The 24-year-old became the youngest woman to reach the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slams in a single season since Maria Sharapova, 18, did it in 2005 with a crushing victory at Louis Armstrong Stadium.

As Swiatek&nbsp waited patiently for her on-court interview, she claimed to be messaging her coach Wim Fissette while typing furiously on her phone.

The world no. 2 said, “I asked him to book a practice court for 10 minutes, if possible,” before explaining how it helped her reach her 13th major quarter-final.

“I would describe the focus and intensity. She initially appeared to play quickly, and the court changed. After that, I needed to find my rhythm and was inside.

I forced the ball to enter. I’m satisfied with the standard.

In a repeat of the Wimbledon final, which Swiatek won 6-0, 6-0, Amanda Anisimova will face the Polish second seed.

According to state media, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s train crossed the border into China just before the military parade honoring Japan’s surrender in World War II.

Kim is one of 26 world leaders scheduled to take part in the parade on Wednesday to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Kim, Xi Jinping, and Vladimir Putin will attend the Beijing event for the first time.

According to the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper, Kim’s train crossed the border between North Korea and China on Tuesday morning.

Kim Jong Un is traveling to the People’s Republic of China, according to the Rodong Sinmun, who also uses the official name of North Korea. “Key senior officials from the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea and the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are accompanying him,” the statement read.

Kim’s visit to China follows the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, which Xi and Putin frequently decried as Western leaders’ presumption of power in Tianjin.

North Korea, one of the most remote states in the world, has long relied on China and Russia for economic and diplomatic support.

In recent years, Pyongyang has partnered with Moscow in particular, sending thousands of troops to support Putin’s conflict in Ukraine.

Kim has met Xi five times since taking office in 2011, most recently in 2019, when the leader of the North Korean nation attended a celebration marking the 70th anniversary of China-North Korea relations.

“Belgium will recognize Palestine at the UN session!” And the Israeli government will face severe sanctions, Prevot, who also serves as deputy prime minister, wrote early on Tuesday on the social media platform X.

Prevot outlined Belgium’s intention to impose 12 “firm sanctions” on Israel, including a ban on importing goods from the settlements and a “review of public procurement practices with Israeli companies.”

He continued, “in light of the humanitarian tragedy occurring in Palestine, particularly in Gaza,” that the announcement had been made.

President Emmanuel Macron made the announcement at the end of July that France would recognize Palestine at the UNGA, which will take place in New York from September 9 to September 23.

Numerous other nations have made statements that they will do the same following this, though some have said they will put restrictions on their acceptance.

Some 147 nations, which make up 75% of the UN, had already ratified Palestinian statehood in April of this year.

At least 63, 459 people have been killed and 160, and 256 more have been wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza, according to Belgium’s announcement.

Following allegations that two Israeli soldiers had engaged in atrocities in Gaza, Belgian prosecutors filed a war crimes complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in July.

On Tuesday, September 2, 2018, the situation is as follows:

Fighting

• A 73-year-old man was killed when Russian forces shelled Bilozerka in the Ukrainian province of Kherson, according to a post on Telegram on Monday.
• According to Viacheslav Chaus, the governor of the Chernihiv region, a Russian drone attack on the city of Horodnia caused injuries to two people, including a 14-year-old girl.
• According to Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov, Russian forces “intensively attacked” the Sumy region of Ukraine, causing injuries to seven people and property damage.
• According to the local utility agency, the attacks on Sumy also caused disruption to the region’s water and energy supplies, according to Ukrinform’s online news site.
• According to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Russia’s occupation of Crimea has resulted in the deaths of 15 children who were “tragically killed,” and dozens more were injured as a result of their parents’ murder and forced disappearance.
• Around 17, 000 students are enrolled in underground schools in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, a frequent target of Russian attacks, for the new academic year.
• According to the Russian government’s TASS news agency, 260 Ukrainian drones and three rockets launched by Russia’s forces were shot down in a 24-hour period.

Regional security

A plane carrying European Commission Chairman Ursula von der Leyen was reportedly hit by GPS jamming as it made its way to Bulgaria, according to a spokesperson for the European Union on Monday.
• After the incident, European Commissioner for Defence and Space Andrius Kubilius announced that the EU would set up additional satellites in low Earth orbit to improve its ability to deal with incoming GPS interference.
• Top military commander of Germany, Carsten Breuer, stated that German and NATO forces will continue to “be on our guard” under the pretext of Moscow’s scheduled two-week military exercises.

diplomacy and politics

• Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, made the remarks during a speech at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, in which he blamed Western nations for the war that erupted in Ukraine.
• German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius made a critical observation about the EU’s von der Leyen’s recent comments regarding plans to send European troops to Ukraine, saying, “Those are things you don’t discuss before you sit down at the negotiating table with many parties that have a say in the matter.”
• In a speech on Monday, European Council President Antonio Costa stated that the EU “opted diplomacy over escalation” in relation to tariffs that were partially imposed by US President Donald Trump due to security concerns.
• “We certainly don’t celebrate the return of tariffs,” he added. Our Eastern border is in danger, Costa said, so raising tensions with a key ally over tariffs would have been a foolish choice.
• According to the French presidency, France will host a meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing,” a group of nations supporting Ukraine.