Former World No.1 Naomi Osaka of Japan swept into the Round of 16 at the China Open with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Katie Volynets of the United States on Monday.

Beijing: Scores | Order of Play | Draws

The third-round match was postponed one day due to rain, but the overnight delay did not hinder Osaka one bit. Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka won her first meeting with World No.60 Volynets in 1 hour and 17 minutes of play.

"For me, I wanted to keep growing from my last match," Osaka said afterwards. "I was just trying to be really aggressive from the beginning. ... I felt like I really shouldn't care too much about my unforced errors rather than just keeping her on the move."

Next up, a meeting with Gauff: With the win, Osaka set up a marquee fourth-round showdown against No.4 seed Coco Gauff, which will take place on Tuesday. It will be the first meeting between the two Grand Slam champions in over two years.

Osaka and Gauff have evenly split their four previous meetings, alternating victories each year between 2019 and 2022. Gauff won their most recent encounter at San Jose in August 2022 by a 6-4, 6-4 scoreline.

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"I think it's going to be a really cool test for me," Osaka said, looking ahead to facing Gauff. "She's played really well this year. ... I'm excited to play the match, and I know people are excited to watch the match."

Former champ on a roll: This is Osaka's first Beijing appearance since she won the China Open title in 2019. The only former champion to contest this fortnight's main draw, Osaka has an outstanding 13-2 career win-loss record at the event.

"I think it helps that when I first got here, people said that I was on a winning streak, even though it was from years ago," Osaka said. "I find it's kind of like faking it until you make it. But also I realized that I am playing better throughout the year."

Osaka has exhibited some of her top form in her opening three rounds, dropping only one set, to No.21 seed Yulia Putintseva. This is the first time Osaka has won three straight matches since Rome in May.

Osaka, who came back from maternity leave in the first week of this season and is currently ranked World No.73, has won all seven of her WTA singles titles on hard court. She is aiming for her first title since the 2021 Australian Open.

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Match moments: Osaka came into Monday's meeting having gone winless against Americans since her return to tour. This year, she lost to Danielle Collins at Abu Dhabi, Emma Navarro at Wimbledon and Ashlyn Krueger in Cincinnati qualifying.

But the Japanese player snapped that strange statistic with a powerful performance against Volynets. Osaka was commanding on serve on Monday, winning 82 percent of her first-service points and never facing a break point all day.

Sturdy forehands by the former World No.1 gave her a quick 3-0 lead to open the match. Serving for the first set at 5-2, Osaka hit two aces and a forehand winner to reach triple set point, then closed out the love hold with a backhand winner.

Another rally backhand winner gave Osaka a swift break in the second set at 2-1, and she cruised from there. Volynets did well to save a match point at 5-1 and force Osaka to serve out the match, but Osaka was up to the task, drawing a forehand error from the American on match point number two.