Taylor Fritz arrives in the 2025 US Open quarter-finals as the last American remaining, carrying the weight of a tough draw. The world No 4 and fourth seed, who was runner-up at this event in 2024, now meets Novak Djokovic, the seventh seed in New York.

Djokovic’s fitness and motivation have come under scrutiny across 2025 and during this tournament, and he struggled early in Flushing Meadows. His fourth-round victory over Jan-Lennard Struff was described as his most convincing performance of the event so far and propelled him into a 14th US Open men’s singles quarter-final. That total is second only to Jimmy Connors (17) in the Open Era.

The head-to-head presents an even greater obstacle for Fritz. The American has lost all 10 of his previous matches against Djokovic. Their most recent meeting in a US Open quarter-final came in 2023, when Djokovic defeated Fritz 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 on his way to a major title.

For Djokovic, the match with Fritz will mark his 64th Grand Slam singles quarter-final overall. Notably, Flushing Meadows remains the only major at which he has never been beaten at the quarter-final stage. On 13 prior occasions that Djokovic reached the last eight at the US Open, he progressed each time to at least the semi-final.

Across his career he has been eliminated before the quarter-final round on five occasions: 2005, 2006, 2019, 2020, and 2024. His first US Open quarter-final victory came in 2007, when he beat Carlos Moya 6-4, 7-6(7), 6-1 en route to his first major final. Djokovic then recorded a sequence of ten straight quarter-final wins at the US Open, and by 2018 had made 11 quarter-finals in 11 appearances after withdrawing in 2017 due to injury.

His records at the other majors underline his consistency: 12-3 in Australian Open quarter-finals, 13-5 at Roland Garros (not including his 2024 withdrawal), and 14-2 at Wimbledon. Fritz faces one of the sternest tests possible in New York as Djokovic seeks to maintain his unblemished US Open quarter-final run.

A different version of Jannik Sinner appeared on Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night, and his words before the match foreshadowed the intensity that followed. Speaking to Anna Wintour prior to the last-16 clash in New York, he concluded the exchange with: “Now it’s time for revenge.”

From the opening point Sinner imposed himself. He dismantled a less than fully fit Alexander Bublik, showing no mercy as he controlled the match from start to finish. Bublik met Sinner’s dominance with self-deprecating humour: “You’re so good, this is insane. I’m not bad.”

Sinner attributed part of the result to the toll on his opponent after a long previous match against Tommy Paul. “He had a very tough match the last match,” said Sinner. “He didn’t serve as well as he usually does. I’m very happy. The first time this year I can play the night match here and it makes so, so big difference.”

He also reflected on the flow of the contest and the days when things do not click for an opponent. “Sometimes we have some days off, where certain things don’t work. Some players have some problems behind the scenes, you never know.

“At the end of the day we try to make the sport as interesting as possible. At times I felt today I was playing some great tennis.

“I managed to break him very early. It gave me then the confidence to serve a little bit better and play from the back of the court a bit better.

“It was a fast match but at the same time from my point of view it is good. People come here to see some great tennis matches, some great battles and it’s not always that is the case.

“I don’t know what he said or if he was in here, but I can just judge from my point of view and how I managed to play and it was a good performance from my side.”

The Italian suggested he was “not a machine” when questions came about his dip in form after that match, but against Bublik he was unmistakably on a mission. Bublik had not faced a single break in the 59 times he served at this US Open until this match; Sinner broke him precisely two minutes into the contest and never relented.

Sinner’s victory extended his Grand Slam winning run on hard courts to 25 matches. With the tournament moving forward, a potential meeting with Carlos Alcaraz in the final remains a compelling possibility.

Justine Henin expressed concern about Coco Gauff’s development after the American’s straight-sets defeat at the 2025 US Open. Gauff fell 3-6, 2-6 to 23rd seed and four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka in the last 16 at Flushing Meadows in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The match was one-sided. Gauff produced eight winners but suffered 33 lost points attributed to unforced errors out of 88 points, five of which were double faults. The world No 3 won only 54% of her service points and was broken four times across nine service games. Osaka was far more effective on serve, winning 94% of points behind her first delivery and dropping only six of 38 total service points; she had just one service game in which she lost more than a single point.

The defeat came after a significant coaching change. In the week before the US Open, Gauff replaced coach Matt Daly with biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan with the stated aim of addressing serving problems. She altered her service motion despite the limited time before her home Grand Slam.

Gauff had shown resilience earlier in the tournament, coping with match and personal pressure to advance past Ajla Tomljanovic and Donna Vekic, and then recording a routine third-round victory over Magdalena Frech.

Henin was forthright in her assessment of the last-16 loss. “Osaka did what she had to do by also playing with her experience,” she said. “She didn’t have to force her talent today either, showing solidity and being present.”

On Gauff’s performance, Henin added: “We felt from the start of the match that Coco Gauff had fallen back into her old ways, not especially in terms of her serve but in terms of her forehand, it was catastrophic.” She went on to place the result in the context of the season: “Obviously, this enormous pressure at the US Open is special for her, but I still think overall, over the whole season, and not so much on the results, what worries me is the lack of evolution in her game. At that age, you’re still progressing, you’re still developing.”