World No.1 and US Open defending champion, Naomi Osaka has been knocked out in Round of 16. She lost 5-7, 4-6 to Belinda Bencic.
Bencic defeated Osaka for the third time in as many meetings this year. She will play Vekic, her good friend, in the last eight.
Osaka will lose the number one ranking to Ashleigh Barty as a result of the defeat.
Bencic, 22, a protégé of Martina Hingis, was a teenage phenom herself, reaching the quarterfinals of the 2014 U.S. Open at 17. But she has battled injuries in recent years and has not been back to that round at a Grand Slam event since.
In the quarterfinals, Bencic will face No. 23 Donna Vekic, who defeated Julia Görges, 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-3. Vekic, 23, will be playing her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Görges, the No. 26 seed, served for the match and held match points in the second set.
Osaka’s loss came about 15 hours after the men’s No. 1, Novak Djokovic, was eliminated from the tournament when he retired with an injury from his fourth-round match against Stan Wawrinka.
