Young guns provide inspiration for Osaka

US Open champion Naomi Osaka confessed to being inspired by fellow young guns Stefanos Tsitsipas and Frances Tiafoe after edging a step closer to back-to-back grand slam crowns yesterday.

Osaka scrapped her way into the Australian Open quarterfinals for the first time with a 4-6 6-3 6-4 fourth-round triumph over Latvian 13th seed Anastasija Sevastova.

For the second straight match Osaka had to battle back from a set down to progress at Melbourne Park.

But the world No 4 never panicked on Rod Laver Arena.

‘‘I was thinking I’ve been in this position before and actually last time it was a little bit worse,’’ Osaka said. ‘‘I didn’t give up. She was playing really well. I wasn’t really sure what to do at a point. I just try to stick in there.

‘‘And also I was watching all these kids winning, like, last night Tsitsipas beat Federer and I was like, ’woah’, so I decided I wanted to do well too.

‘‘I mean, I was watching him and Tiafoe. I thought they were playing really well and just the fact that they came out here and played against some of the top players and won and I also want to do that.

‘‘I think that’s everyone’s dream.’’

Osaka will face Elina Svitolina for a semifinal berth after the Ukrainian sixth seed earlier ousted American Madison Keys 6-2 1-6 6-1 in their fourth-round affair.

For a quarter of an hour, Svitolina served and served, and served again, tossing the ball into the sun, in a desperate bid to hold a game in the third set against Keys.

The sixth-seeded Svitolina fended off five break points in game that went to deuce 11 times, contained 28 points, and was pivotal in a momentumswinging 6-2 1-6 6-1 win that earned her a place in the quarterfinals.

At her first opportunity in the next game she broke the 17thseeded Keys, runner-up at the

2017 US Open and a semifinalist or better at three of the last five majors. It was all one-way from then on.

‘‘I was happy I could handle the pressure at 1-1 in the third set,’’ Svitolina said. ‘‘It was very hard because the sun was just burning my eyes when I was tossing the ball. Very happy I could win that game.’’

In the men’s fourth round, an agitated Alexander Zverev’s Australian Open campaign has been obliterated — as well as his racket — in defeat to big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic in the fourth round.

Raonic, the 16th seed, was too strong 6-1 6-1 7-6 (7-5) against an out-of-sorts Zverev, whose temper flared in another poor showing at a grand slam.

The young German fourth seed smashed a racket in the second set after serving three double faults in one game to go down 4-1.