▲ Naomi Osaka during her Round of 16 match
Naomi Osaka (14th, Japan) has reached the quarterfinals of the 2026 Wimbledon Championships (total prize money of 64.2 million pounds) for the first time after defeating world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus).
Osaka defeated Sabalenka 2-0 in the women's singles Round of 16, held on the seventh day of the tournament at the All England Club in London, UK, on July 5 (local time).
This marks the first time that Osaka, a four-time major champion, has advanced to the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
With defending champion Iga Swiatek (3rd, Poland) and Elena Rybakina (2nd, Kazakhstan) eliminated in the third round the previous day, and now Sabalenka knocked out in the Round of 16, the women's singles title race has become even more unpredictable.
Osaka, who had lost to Sabalenka in all three of their previous meetings this year, rattled her opponent from the first set with powerful returns. She successfully broke serve twice to take the first set in just 32 minutes.
In the second set, Sabalenka fought back using her serve, but Osaka took a 5-1 lead early in the tiebreak and closed out the match 7-2.
"I felt like I was constantly being pushed back by Sabalenka on clay courts," Osaka said after the match. "This time, I tried to be the one to pressure my opponent first."
She added, "We are both players who hit powerful shots. I am not the type of player who runs all over the court waiting for the opponent to make mistakes. I focused on my strengths and tried to take control from the beginning of the rallies."
She will face Karolina Muchova (9th, Czech Republic) in the quarterfinals.
Coco Gauff (7th, USA) also reached her first Wimbledon quarterfinals by defeating Belinda Bencic (11th, Switzerland) 2-1.
Gauff, who reached the Round of 16 at this tournament in 2019 at the age of 15, reached the quarterfinals in her seventh attempt.
Gauff will face Jessica Pegula (4th, USA) in the quarterfinals.
In the men's singles, Novak Djokovic (8th, Serbia) defeated Roman Safiullin (132nd, Russia) 3-1 to advance to the quarterfinals.
With this victory, Djokovic has recorded 106 career wins at Wimbledon, surpassing Roger Federer (retired, Switzerland), who had 105 wins, to become the sole leader for the most men's singles wins at Wimbledon.
Across both men's and women's singles, the record for the most Wimbledon wins is held by Martina Navratilova (retired, USA) with 120 victories.
Djokovic said he does not place much significance on the record for the most men's singles wins at Wimbledon.
"It's not a very important record for me right now," he said after the match. "I haven't even thought about it. I only found out after winning my last match."
He added, "I struggled because I wasn't playing the way I wanted to. Since I won even with a poor performance, I hope to improve from here."
Djokovic will face Felix Auger-Aliassime (4th, Canada) in the quarterfinals.
Defending champion Jannik Sinner (1st, Italy) also joined the quarterfinals by defeating qualifier Shintaro Mochizuki (151st, Japan) 3-0.
Mochizuki, the 2019 Wimbledon junior boys' singles champion, came through the qualifiers in this tournament to reach the Round of 16, the best result of his major career.
Although he was defeated, he left the court to a standing ovation from the crowd.
Sinner, who is aiming for his second consecutive title, will meet Jan-Lennard Struff (74th, Germany) in the quarterfinals.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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