Taylor Townsend has emerged as one of the tournament’s most talked-about competitors at the 2025 US Open. The 29-year-old, a home favourite who entered the draw unseeded, is one of only 16 women remaining in New York after an eye-catching run to the fourth round.

Townsend reached round three and then produced a straight-sets win over fifth seed Mirra Andreeva to advance. Her campaign began with an opening victory over Antonia Ruzic and included a subsequent win over Ostapenko that moved her through the early rounds.

By reaching the fourth round of her home major — only the second time she has reached week two of a Grand Slam singles event — Townsend has collected 240 ranking points this week. That is up from the 70 points she earned for reaching round two in 2024, a provisional increase of 170 points. As things stand, she is projected to leap 28 places to around world No 111 after the tournament.

If Townsend can defeat Barbora Krejcikova in the fourth round, she would earn 430 ranking points and move back inside the top 100, to an approximate ranking of world No 85 in the WTA Live Rankings.

The US Open’s increased prize-money structure in 2025 has also worked in Townsend’s favour. Entry to the main draw guaranteed $110,000 for round one; her opening victory lifted that total to $154,000 for round two. A subsequent win over Ostapenko increased her singles prize-money to $237,000, and by reaching the fourth round she has secured a minimum of $400,000 for her singles campaign.

That sum represents a notable rise on the $280,000 Townsend earned for reaching the fourth round in 2019, the only previous occasion she reached the second week of a major singles event. A victory over Krejcikova would take her to a first major quarter-final and to $660,000 in singles prize money for the tournament.

Alexander Zverev arrived at the US Open as one of the sport’s most accomplished players still chasing a first major. The 28-year-old Olympic champion from Tokyo 2020, a two-time ATP Finals winner, a seven-time Masters 1000 champion and holder of 24 ATP Tour titles, began the tournament ranked third in the world and one place shy of his career-high at No 2.

Yet on Saturday in New York his bid stalled in the third round. Felix Auger-Aliassime, ranked 24 places below Zverev, produced one of the best wins of his career, defeating the German 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-4, 6-4. The 25-year-old Canadian had shown flashes at Slams before — a 2021 US Open semi-final is the high mark — but consistency has often been an issue. Prior to this event he had not reached a Grand Slam quarter-final since the 2022 Australian Open and had reached the second week of a major only three times in the intervening years. He also carried a 1-3 record at Flushing Meadows across the three years after 2021.

“I had a tough start, but then after, like a bit nervous to be honest, even though I’ve faced these players at these situations,” said Auger-Aliassime, post-match. “I was just a bit nervous and then once that got away, I felt good, and it’s nice because it just, it’s been a work in progress and I feel like, you know, tonight everything came together very nicely and all the things I’ve been working on have paid off tonight.”

For Zverev the loss is a setback that prolongs a stubborn Grand Slam drought. He had won six of eight previous meetings with Auger-Aliassime but looked short on confidence and tactical clarity as the match slipped away. This is his earliest US Open exit since 2018; he missed the 2022 tournament through injury. Recent Grand Slam form has been uneven: finalist at the 2024 US Open and the 2025 Australian Open, a Roland Garros quarter-final exit in 2025, followed by a first-round Wimbledon defeat and now this early New York exit.

Auger-Aliassime, the 25th seed, now moves on with a likely fourth-round clash against 15th seed Andrey Rublev. For Zverev, the search for a first major will continue into the next season.

Two of the WTA Tour’s most prominent champions meet again in a fourth-round US Open showdown after decisive third-round victories.

Third seed Coco Gauff reached this marquee match by dispatching 28th seed Magdalena Frech, dropping just four games in what was her most convincing performance of the tournament so far. Resurgent 23rd seed Naomi Osaka booked the clash by overcoming 15th seed Daria Kasatkina in the third round.

Their next meeting follows five previous encounters and a China Open quarter-final last October that ended with Osaka forced to retire injured. One of the pair’s most memorable meetings came at this tournament in 2019, when a 15-year-old Gauff made her New York debut and Osaka prevailed 6-3, 6-0. That experience proved formative for Gauff and helped shape her trajectory in the seasons that followed. “That moment, I remember it was a tough, tough moment for me because it was a hyped up match,” Gauff said.

“And I remember, looking back at it, I guess I put way too much pressure on myself thinking I maybe had a chance in that moment to actually do something, which I definitely did.

“But I think it was just that I felt more of expectation that I should than maybe belief. And so then, when I played her in Australia, that was more belief than expectation.

“Naomi and I, we aren’t like super close or anything, but we’re definitely friendly with each other, and I support her from afar and all the things that she’s done on and off the court. So I’m imagining we would probably be on Ashe, and at night, I’m just assuming.

“So it would be a cool kind of a deja vu type of situation, but hopefully it’ll be a different result.”

After beating Gauff in the third round in 2019, Osaka’s title defence ended with a fourth-round loss to Belinda Bencic. She returned to lift the US Open title in 2020, and this is her first time back in the second week in New York since that triumph. “Yeah, I mean my recollections were that I remember just knowing that she was going to be a really great tennis player, which she was,” Osaka said. “So now to be playing her again after six years, I don’t 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.”

Gauff arrives with serving concerns noted earlier in the tournament but believes facing a calibre opponent like Osaka can relieve some pressure. “I think it’s an advantage, like if I, for me, mentally, I think to play a calibre opponent like her.

“I think sometimes even though all the women on tour are incredible, but when you have these matchups where you know, you’re so heavily favourited, it puts more pressure, I think, than when you’re playing someone who I guess the odds people view it differently.

“I think she’s having a great season and is always a tough player and a threat on, especially on hard court. So I think, you know, that match, I guess, odds, why it can really go either way.

“And I think for me, that almost takes the pressure off.”

The winner on Monday will face Marta Kostyuk or Karolina Muchova in the quarter-finals.