Naomi Osaka's win over Coco Gauff shows the progress she's made with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski

NEW YORK—Naomi Osaka has had her share of coaches over the years. According to her, though, her requirements for the position are pretty simple.

“I think when I was searching for a new coach, I just wanted someone with a lot of knowledge,” she says. “I don’t really like questioning if someone really knows what they’re talking about.”

Osaka, it seems safe to say, found what she was looking for in Tomasz Wiktorowski, the man she hired for the job a little more than a month ago. Wiktorowski helped guide Iga Swiatek to the No. 1 ranking and five of her six Grand Slam titles, so he must have some idea of how to coach. Osaka says she used to think he was “scary” when she saw him around, because he “never smiled.” Now she knows otherwise.

“When he smiles, he really is like a teddy bear,” Osaka says. “I feel like it kind of creates a safe space for me to be able to express myself and my tennis.”

More important, she’s been blown away by how quickly his on-court advice has helped her.

In their first tournament together, in Montreal, Osaka made her first top-tier final since 2022. In their second tournament together, at the US Open, she’s into her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since 2021, after beating No. 3 seed Coco Gauff on Monday, 6-3, 6-2.

“He’s done a lot in my game in a very short amount of time that have been really simple fixes, but they've just also been kind of mind-blowing at the same time,” she says of Witkorowski.

So far, he hasn’t changed how she hits the ball, as much as where she aims it.

“He draws a little court sometimes, and he’ll put markers on where I should hit or where we think is, like, the best shot selection,’ she says. “[He] has talked to me a lot about the placement of my shots and not necessarily going for winners most of the time.”

Gauff finished with 33 unforced errors, which was the same number of points she won. While Osaka made just 42 percent of first serves, she wouldn’t face a break point.

It was clear from the start of her match with Gauff where Witkorowski had drawn his X. It wasn’t near any line, or close to a corner. It wasn’t a spot where Osaka would hit many clean winners. It wasn’t even designed to force Gauff to run. It was, instead, a place that would make her hit her forehand from a stationary position, behind the baseline.

As basic as that sounds, it worked.

Gauff can hit a strong forehand when she’s moving forward, and the ball is up in her stroke zone. She’s also solid from that side when she’s on the run and defending. But the regulation rally forehand can give her trouble, and it did today. She missed it early and often, and she kept missing it. By the middle of the second set, her backhand had broken down, too.

Gauff finished with 33 unforced errors, which was the same number of points she won. While Osaka made just 42 percent of first serves, she wouldn’t face a break point. All of the things that Osaka has been concentrating on with Wiktorowski—her return, her defense, her consistency, her placement—worked for her today. She seemed especially proud of how well she’s tracking down her opponent’s drop shots these days.

“I might do something stupid once I do get to the drop shot, but I get there.”

Normally someone who has a high count of winners and errors, Osaka made just 10 of the former and 12 of the latter. Afterward, she praised Witkorowski’s strategy, and how much it simplified things for her.

“I think I played smart,” she said. “I feel like Tomasz gave me a game plan, and I executed it pretty well. All credit to him. It was just very clear for me what I had to do from the beginning. If I stepped outside of those lines, it was very easy to go back in them.”

“She forced me to earn every point out there today,” Gauff said of Osaka. “She forced me to play how I did.”

Osaka is proud of her new shot tolerance, and how comfortable she was trading ground strokes with Gauff.

“I think that says a lot for me to be completely fine with playing long rallies with her, and just knowing that I’m OK not going for anything until I get my, like, perfect opportunity,” Osaka said.

Last month in Cincinnati, we saw Iga Swiatek turn her clay-court game into one that works on fast hard courts. Are we seeing Osaka transform herself from a basher into a grinder? We won’t get ahead of ourselves. For today, she was happy to keep calm and carry on.

“Part of my plan was just not to, like, freak out when she gets a lot of balls back and just keep building the point,” Osaka said.

Mission accomplished.