So much has happened for Naomi Osaka — in tennis, away from tennis — since she first played Coco Gauff at the U.S. Open back in 2019.

Over that time, Osaka has won two Grand Slam trophies to raise her career total to four, helped spark a global conversation about mental health by revealing she felt anxiety and depression, taken a series of breaks from the tour and become a mother.

The Gauff vs. Osaka matchup in the fourth round at Flushing Meadows on Monday serves as both a reminder — to them, to others — of that night six years ago, as well as all that’s transpired since.

“Just to be at this point of my life and to be playing her again,” Osaka said, “is, honestly, for me … kind of special.”

Osaka was 21 and the reigning champion at the U.S. Open and Australian Open; Gauff was 15 and playing in only her second Grand Slam tournament and first in New York. Osaka won in straight sets in Arthur Ashe Stadium, but what was most memorable was what happened after the last point.

Gauff was crying, and Osaka walked over to console her and suggest that she address the crowd — highly unusual for the loser of a match. But Osaka knew the fans would want to hear from the young American who already was showing signs of becoming the star she is today.

“I remember it was a tough moment for me, because it was a hyped-up match. I remember looking back at it. I guess I put way too much pressure on myself thinking I maybe had a chance in that moment to actually do something, which I definitely did,” Gauff said Saturday, “but I think it was just I felt more expectation that I should, than maybe belief.”

Osaka recalls recognizing how much talent and poise Gauff possessed for such a young player.

“I thought she just handled herself really well,” said Osaka, who is seeded 23rd at Flushing Meadows and recently began working with Iga Swiatek’s former coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, “and I knew she was going to be back there.”

After winning the U.S. Open again in 2020, Osaka triumphed at the Australian Open in January 2021. At the next Grand Slam tournament, she pulled out before her second-round match and explained the off-court struggles she had been dealing with, then took the first of a handful of mental health breaks.

The Australian Open, 4 1/2 years ago, was the last major where Osaka made it to the fourth round until now. She was off the tour for part of that stretch while on maternity leave.

On Saturday, she spoke about “the journey getting back here.”

“I just feel happy,” said Osaka, 27, “because I feel like all of my hard work is amounting to something.”

Gauff, now 21, won the U.S. Open in 2023 and the French Open this June and is seeded No. 3 in New York while working with a biomechanics expert to retool her problematic serve.

“Naomi and I, we aren’t super close or anything, but we’re definitely friendly with each other. I support her from afar in all the things that she’s done on and off the court,” Gauff said.

“It would be a cool kind of deja vu-type of situation,” she said, guessing that this rematch will be in Ashe, too, “but hopefully it will be a different result.”

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Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

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Indie wrestling newcomer Syko Stu has finally come out of a harrowing week when the wrestler was bedridden at the hospital for a couple of days. The wrestler was only released and is currently recuperating at home.

In a distraught Facebook entry bearing the real-life first name of Stuart Smith’s spouse, Contessa Patterson, it was obvious that Stu is currently at peace after being placed under life-threatening head injuries as a result of a violent confrontation with UFC legendary fighter Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s son, Raja Jackson.

Vicious beating filmed on tape

Raja Jackson was live-streaming on the Kick account when he burst into the ring and blindsided Stu at a wrestling show in Los Angeles. The videos recorded Raja slamming Stu repeatedly on the ground and then hitting him before fellow wrestler Douglas Malo came and dragged him away.

When Stu was brought to the emergency room, he was unconscious and struggling to stabilize. Physicians announced that he had hurt both of his jaws, a cracked maxilla bone, a deep cut on the lip, and lost a few teeth. Peers and fans feared the worst.

The Road to Recovery

The Facebook update from Stu was the first clear information following the accident:

“Stuart has been released from the hospital and is now home resting. He sustained a serious head injury… He has a long road of recovery ahead, but he remains in good spirits despite everything he has been through.”

Contessa went on to thank fans, fellow wrestlers, and community members for their overwhelming support, from financial donations to flowers and food.

“Your kindness means more than words can express,” the message read.

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Taylor Townsend couldn’t convert eight match points in a second set that ended with a 25-minute tiebreaker and was eliminated from the U.S. Open on Sunday with a 1-6, 7-6 (13), 6-3 loss to Barbora Krejcikova.

With fans chanting “Let’s go Taylor! Let’s go Taylor!” for a player who became a fan favorite during the tournament after her confrontation with Jelena Ostapenko following her second-round victory, Townsend was repeatedly a point away from what would have been her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

But Krejcikova, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, erased seven match points in the tiebreaker, broke Townsend’s serve twice in the third set and advanced to face No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula on Tuesday.

“It just stings, because I literally gave everything,” Townsend said. “She came up with some really, really great tennis in moments where she was down, and I thought I had it.”

Townsend hugged Krejcikova at the net after the match, then sat in her sideline chair and began crying before leaving the court to a standing ovation as she dabbed her eyes with a towel.

“To be honest, I’m totally enjoying this crowd. Even though it’s not for me, it’s for the Americans, it’s fine,” Krejcikova said in her interview on the Louis Armstrong Stadium court after the match.

“I’m looking forward to seeing you again in my next match — I think against another American.”

In her first 31st Grand Slam appearance, Townsend had never been closer to reaching the last eight. She lost to eventual champion Bianca Andreescu in 2019 in her only other fourth-round appearance.

Townsend remains in the women’s doubles tournament as the No. 1-seeded team with Katerina Siniakova — who won a career Grand Slam in doubles with Krejcikova during their partnership.

Krejcikova won the 2021 French Open and 2024 Wimbledon titles, but missed nearly five months to begin this season with a back injury and has worked hard to reach her second quarterfinal in New York. She rallied late to knock off 10th-seeded American Emma Navarro in 2 1/2 hours in the third round, then went 3 hours, 4 minutes Sunday — 98 minutes alone for the second set.

Townsend was first in position to win that when had a break point on Krejcikova’s serve at 5-4 in the third, 1 1/2 hours into the match. Krejcikova won that game and the next one to go up 6-5 before Townsend broke to force the marathon tiebreaker.

Krejcikova hit a backhand into the corner that landed on the line to erase the fifth match point, and Townsend never had a better chance.

It was after Townsend’s victory over Ostapenko that the Latvian told her she had “no class” and “no education” in an argument at the net. Ostapenko later apologized in a social media post.

Townsend then upset No. 5 Mirra Andreeva in the third round and took the first set Sunday in just 28 minutes, looking on the verge of her major breakthrough that came agonizingly close.

“I’m glad that I was able to win (the fans) over, and for people to be able to find out who I am, and even more so play some of my best tennis and put on a great show and just give the fans what they deserve, which is some great tennis,” Townsend said. “I gave everything that I could.”

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The US Open has always attracted drama around it, but this time the drama was not on the court, rather in the stands. After Polish tennis pro Kamil Majchrzak secured the best victory in his life as he beat ninth-seeded Karen Khachanov in five thrilling sets, the player walked towards the stands to spread love. He autographed, waved, grinned, then took off his hat and particularly pointed towards a boy named Brock in the stands.

Others thought that this was one of those fan moments that kids will always remember throughout their life. But instead of that, this is another viral scandal.

Even before the boy could spread wide his arms, the adult male, Polish tycoon, pavement construction magnate, Piotr Szczerek, grasped the hat, thrust it into the pocket in the bag belonging to his wife, and walked away leaving the boy heart-broken as he yelled, “What are you doing?”

Here Comes the Villain:

If the internet has any one true beau, it is that of the dastardly villain. Szczerek, owner of asphalt company Drogbruk and amateur tennis buff, was outed overnight. Net detectives proclaimed him to be the “most hated man on the internet.” Frankly, the optics were brutal.

A tycoon boss who has a private tennis court in his own yard, stealing a souvenir from a schoolboy? That’s not just a poor image, that’s Bond villain style.

So when the cameras recorded him-stuffing-the-hat-into-his-wife’s-purse like it was contraband, game over. There was no coming back from Szczerek. His social networking sites disappeared in the scandal.

His Defense: “Life is first come, first served”

However, rather than slowly disappearing, Szczerek doubled up, as Dexerto reports. Issuing a public statement that sounded like lines from a parody program, he ignored the backlash:

“Ah, yes, I took it. Yes, I did it in a rush. But as always, first come, first served is life.”

Brother, that ain’t no shoe drop; that was that boy’s hat.

He even threatened to sue those who disrespect him on the web. Just thinking about swiping a hat from a kid, then breaking out the “see you in court” magic trick.

The Internet Erupts

Social media did what social media does best: roasted him alive. There were the run-of-the-mill heckler variety, like calling him a “jerk” and “coward,” and suggesting that he embarrassed the whole company. There was this viral post that condensed all that in this short write-up:

“Only an ordinary idiot and a jerk could snatch a hat from a child’s hands.”

Next time, we wouldn’t want to run him through to lay asphalt,” another added.

Even Majchrzak, who initially handed over the hat, acknowledged that there was “confusion” but could not afford to ignore poor optics. To his credit, the player later found Brock and placated him with several replacement caps, telling him, “All good now.”

The Fake Lawyer Statement: Things Get Even Wilder

Just when the tale seemed ridiculous enough, a bizarre statement appeared on the internet under the name of Szczerek’s attorney. He characterized the hat grab as anything short of robbery, but instead an “educational gesture” to teach the boy a sense of gratitude and responsibility.

Yes, you got that right. The defence was that in essence, He did not steal from him; He gave him a life lesson.

It was removed soon thereafter, the honest lawyer complaining that he had been misrepresented. But by that time, damage was already done. The net had meme fodder for months.

The Aftermath: A Hat, A Million Memes

The young man got his hat (along with change). Majchrzak received hero points for being in the right place at the right time, while Szczerek received infamy for cheesiest tennis flex in history. And who will remember that five-set match in ten years’ time? But all will remember the millionaire who took off the child’s hat and then shouted, “First come, first served.” Because in the US Open, the drama is not always on court. Sometimes, it is in the stands, in the guise of the adult struggling with the young for a souvenir, as if it is the last TV available in store on this Black Friday.

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This week, the team at 16 WAPT News in Jackson, Mississippi, mourned the loss of one of their anchors, Celeste Wilson. Wilson, whose full name is Dorothea Celeste Wilson, was only 42 years old when she unexpectedly died of a heart attack. The president and general manager at 16 WAPT, Peter Keith, wrote an editorial post on Friday praising Wilson, who had recently joined the newsroom.

“I can tell you she was an absolute joy to be around — a consummate professional with a smile that would light up a room. In our newsroom, she brought warmth and high standards, elevating not just stories but also the people around her,” he said.

The news station confirmed Wilson’s death on Wednesday, August 27.

Megan West, a colleague of Wilson, honored her with a video of her covering an event for the Girl Scouts of Mississippi. Wilson, a New Orleans, Louisiana native, had “deep Mississippi ties,” according to Wilson’s bio on 16 WAPT.

She was new to our team and so lovely,” she wrote in the Facebook post. “We chatted about how she was adjusting to morning show hours and life a few hours from her home in Louisiana. I treasure the memory of this last, sweet conversation.”

Some other tributes to Wilson include a post from the National Association of Black Journalists and one of Wilson’s former employers, KARK 4 News in Arkansas.

Wilson began her broadcast career at a CBS affiliate in Monroe, LA, and had worked at several other local news stations and in public broadcasting. She attended Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, LA, and later earned her master’s degree in journalism from Arizona State University.

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Esmeralda Ferrer Garibay, only 32 years young, was something else entirely than an influencer. To her thousands of followers on line, though, she was “Esmeralda FG,” a vibrant personality that populated monitors with travel guidance, lifestyle rants, and the occasional lip-sync to narcocorridos that now seem like eerie premonitions. To those who loved her best, however, she was simply Esme, daughter, wife, mother.

But on August 22, her light, that of her husband Roberto Carlos Gil Licea, 36, their teenage son Gael Santiago, 13, and their youngest daughter, Regina, who was only 7 years old, was extinguished in the most brutal way. Police discovered their lifeless bodies in an abandoned pickup truck in Guadalajara, Mexico, their hopes and futures clipped in silence.

From New Beginnings to Unimaginable Endings

The family came to the Guadalajara metropolitan area very recently in pursuit of stability and opportunity. Roberto, who did all that was necessary to provide for the future, divided his days between auto sales and tomato production in Michoacán. Esmeralda, vivacious in every position, labored to balance her virtual life with that of being the mother to two children. Relocation was to be one huge step for them, not the final chapter.

But police now wonder if Roberto’s business ventures may have brought him into a world darker than any family should know. A dreadful thought: that the quest to find decent jobs, to feed kids, to grow them, should end in four bodies discovered in the back of a pickup truck. A Scene of Violence CCTV footage tracked the pickup to a mechanics’ shop, where prosecutors believe the slayings occurred. Blood and ballistic evidence supposedly affirm that the family was killed inside that shop and then thrown like silhouettes into their own pickup.

Prosecutor Alfonso Gutiérrez Santillán explained, “The scene was worked through, and police officers found various pieces of evidence that insinuated that the family was murdered there.”

Even the men questioned in connection to the crime were not safe. After giving statements and being released for lack of evidence, they were abducted in chilling daylight, three vanished in an instant, one barely escaping. Authorities later confirmed the perpetrators had been waiting outside the prosecutor’s office for hours, patient and precise, before carrying out their own silent ambush.

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