Kontaveit suffered two double faults in the opening game and had her serve broken, though the scores remained fairly even from then on until the eighth game, when Osaka, who won the tournament two years ago, broke Kontaveit's serve once again, going on to clinch the set in the next game by winning her serve.

In the second set, things were more even still, but Osaka managed again to break her opponent's service; Kontaveit put up a fight in the final game, in which she served, rescuing five match points in a row, only to have her serve broken the sixth time, handing the round to the Japanese player.

The statistics say it all; Kontaveit's first service success rate was 46 percent in the first set and 59 percent across the entire encounter, compared with 71 percent for Osaka. Kontaveit did not manage to break Osaka's serve and won only 9 times out of 45 of Osaka's first service,

Kontaveit served two aces and three double faults to Osaka's four aces and two double faults.

The face-off lasted an hour and 12 minutes; Osaka will now face 93rd in the world and local player Shelby Rogers, who put world number 12 Petra Kvitova out in three sets.

Kontaveit and Osaka had last met in late August at the Cincinnati tournament (actually held in New York – ed.), where Kontaveit took the first set, only to lose the second and third.

The round of 16 is Kontaveit's farthest progress in the U.S. Open in her career so far, a feat she had already accomplished in 2015.

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