US Open 2019: Holder Naomi Osaka beats Coco Gauff to enter fourth round

Defending champion Naomi Osaka brought American teen Coco Gauff's captivating USOpen run to a swift end with a 6-3, 6-0 win on Saturday to secure her spot in the fourth round.

World number one Osaka, who backed up last year's New York triumph with a win at the Australian Open but has since had an up-and-down season, simply overwhelmed her 15-year-old opponent in the marquee matchup under the Arthur Ashe Stadium lights.

"For me, I think this was the most focused I've been since Australia," Osaka said in an on-court interview, with Gauff standing beside her. "So, sorry for playing you with this type of mentality."

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Gauff, who stunned the tennis world by reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon, committed seven double faults and was error-prone throughout the match.

Osaka set the tone early in the most hyped match of the tournament so far as the 21-year-old Japanese consolidated an early break for a 3-0 lead.

Gauff, in only her sixth Grand Slam match, then fired back-to-back aces to finally get on the board and from there the two exchanged breaks over the next four games before Osaka recovered from 0-30 to serve out the set.

Gauff, still unable to find any rhythm on her serve, made a pair of double faults en route to gifting Osaka a break to open the second set before the Japanese rallied back from 0-40 to consolidate for a 2-0 lead and then raced home from there.

At the end of the 65-minute match, Osaka approached an emotional Gauff at the side of the court, where the two embraced and spoke for a few minutes.

"She told me that I did amazing and good luck and then she asked if I could do the on-court interview with her and I said no because I knew I would cry the whole time but she encouraged me to do it," said Gauff.

"It was amazing. She did amazing and I am going to learn a lot from this match."

Up next for Osaka will be Swiss 13th seed Belinda Bencic, who beat Estonian Anett Kontaveit earlier on Saturday.