Caroline Garcia booked a blockbuster fourth-round clash with No. 3 seed Coco Gauff at the Miami Open presented by Itau, after powering past Naomi Osaka 7-6 (4), 7-5 in a big-serving battle on Sunday afternoon.
Facing off on Grandstand in their third meeting of the year, Garcia blasted 12 aces to Osaka’s 16 and won a whopping 86 percent of her first-serve points to end the Japanese player’s run in an hour and 48 minutes.
“When you play Naomi, you know it’s going to be big aces coming from her side. I tried to match her power—I think I left my shoulder out there also!” Garcia joked in her on-court interview.
“It’s part of the fun, always trying to push your limits and going for a little bit more. But I like to ace the opponents, not so much the other way around!”
Osaka, a wild card in Miami, told press before the match that she thought coach Wim Fissette was pulling her leg when he told her that she was set to face Garcia again. But now the joke seems to be getting old, with Osaka falling 1-2 to Garcia in 2024. The French player knocked her out of the Australian Open in her second tournament back from maternity leave, before Osaka got her back in Doha on her way to her first quarterfinal of the year.