Coco Gauff stuns Naomi Osaka; Serena Williams ousted

MELBOURNE: With composure that belied her age, Coco Gauff claimed the biggest win of her young career on Friday with a stunning upset of defending champion Naomi Osaka at the Australian Open to reach the fourth round.

The 15-year-old American took advantage of a misfiring Osaka for a brutally efficient 6-3, 6-4 win in just 67 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

Gauff, who had beaten seven-times Grand Slam champion, Venus Williams, in her Australian Open debut on Monday, said the win over Osaka ranks "somewhere around the top" of her biggest scalps.

"I thought I played really well today and I was pretty composed and really calm," she told reporters.

Serena Williams suffered her earliest exit from the Australian Open in 14 years on Friday, falling to China's Wang Qiang in a stunning third round reversal that left her bid for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title in tatters once again.

Having conceded one game to Wang in a US Open trouncing four months ago, Williams staggered to an error-strewn 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5 defeat at Rod Laver Arena that sent shockwaves through Melbourne Park and tore open the women's draw.

It was the American's earliest exit from the year's first Grand Slam since her 2006 title defence was ended by Daniela Hantuchova. Doubts about her hopes of matching Margaret Court's Grand Slam haul have resurfaced.

Williams has recovered from her share of Grand Slam setbacks, but this one left an especially bitter taste.

"It's all on my shoulders," the 38-year-old said ruefully. "I just have to pretend like I don't want to punch the wall, but in reality I do."

World number one Ash Barty produced a clinical masterclass of ball striking and placement to beat Elena Rybakina 6-3, 6-2 and advance to the fourth round.

With numerous fans wearing bright pink "Barty Party" t-shirts in the stands of Rod Laver Arena supporting her, the 23-year-old Barty had relatively little trouble against the 20-year-old from Kazakhstan.

Neither was able to hold serve in the opening four games of the third-round clash but once Barty held in the fifth game of the first set it was virtually one-way traffic from then on. Agencies

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