Best of Wimbledon Round 4: Gauff beats the buzzer and Osaka upsets No. 1 seed

In tennis, quirks in scoring and match play often defy comparison to any other sport. Chief among them is the absence of time as a governing factor. Matches can last 60 minutes or stretch past three hours, and nobody thinks twice.

Wimbledon: Scores | Order of play | Draws

At Wimbledon, though, the 11 p.m. local curfew changes the equation. It looms over players who find themselves on court as the clock creeps toward it, daring them to see what happens if they cut it too close.

Spoiler alert: They come back the next day.

Coco Gauff nearly faced that reality Sunday night as she served for a place in the quarterfinals. Spoiler alert part two: She didn't need the extra day. Gauff closed out her win over Belinda Bencic in clutch fashion in what was, almost certainly, the first buzzer beater of her tennis career.

She celebrated accordingly.

"Before the match, they told both of us at 11:00, da-da-da, the whole spiel," Gauff said. "Then we started the third set at 10:05. It should be enough to finish this set, but I don't know. Then we had a couple long games. The next thing you know, it's 10:45, and I was like, Oh, my goodness.

"I did not want to come out here tomorrow. I was just trying to get up a break and stay up a break 'cause I was like, I'd rather come out here on serve up a break instead of the other way."

Gauff's 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 win sent her to her first Wimbledon quarterfinal, completing her set of Grand Slam quarterfinal appearances. It also continued a trend of first-timers joining the Last 8 Club, a run that began with Naomi Osaka earlier Sunday and extended through Monday's final fourth-round match.

Osaka earns first win over Sabalenka in eight years -- and learns about Last 8 Club perks

The best gifts are the unexpected ones. For Osaka, her upset Aryna Sabalenka, and everything that came with it, must have felt like a second birthday. Not only did she earn her first win over Sabalenka since 2018, snapping a three-match losing streak in their WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz head-to-head, but she also learned about the perks of joining Wimbledon's Last 8 Club, including free tickets for life.

"Oh," Osaka said, smiling. "Wait, wait. 'Cause, okay, so I thought you just get that little pin. Can I practice here whenever I want? Is that one of the perks? Who gets to do that?"

Not quite, Naomi. You have to win the title.

"Okay. Got to lock in," she said.

She locked in Sunday. Osaka overpowered Sabalenka 6-2, 7-6 (2) in 1 hour and 28 minutes, winning 87% of her first-serve points and hitting eight aces. With the victory, she snapped several Sabalenka streaks:

• 121 consecutive Grand Slam matches without a straight-sets loss (since the 2020 US Open).
• 14 straight Grand Slam quarterfinals reached in events she contested (starting with the 2022 US Open).

• 21 consecutive tiebreaks won at Grand Slams (since Roland Garros 2023)

Osaka will face Karolina Muchova in the quarterfinals -- a rematch of their recent Bad Homburg final. Muchova defeated 2021 Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 to advance.

Kostyuk continues trend of first-time Wimbledon quarterfinalists

If you thought grass could slow Marta Kostyuk, you were wrong. In the midst of a run that includes 20 wins in her last 21 matches, she reached her first Wimbledon quarterfinal and moved within a US Open quarterfinal of completing her own Grand Slam set.

Kostyuk defeated American qualifier Ashlyn Krueger 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour and 23 minutes to gain admission to the Last 8 Club, but she wasn't the last one, as others were told to stay in line in hopes of entry.

Rewarded for their patience were Elise Mertens, who knocked off 2022 quarterfinalist Marie Bouzkova by an identical 6-4, 6-4 score, and Berlin champion Linda Noskova, who edged Madison Keys in two tightly contested sets.

In total, five first-time Wimbledon quarterfinalists join 2023 Last 8 Club inductee Jessica Pegula, 2024 finalist Jasmine Paolini and Muchova, a two-time quarterfinalist in reaching the last eight. Pegula and Paolini advanced with three-set wins over Iva Jovic and Alexandra Eala.

Superlatives!

• Longest match -- No. 10 Karolina Muchova def. Barbora Krejcikova 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 in 2 hours, 45 minutes.
• Best match -- No. 7 Coco Gauff beats the buzzer to defeat No. 11 Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in 2 hours, 18 minutes.

• Stat to know -- With her win over Eala, Paolini became the first Italian woman to reach multiple Wimbledon quarterfinals. She also became the first woman to reach a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal after losing her first set of the event 6-0 since Garbine Muguruza at the 2020 Australian Open.
• Quote of the round -- Gauff: "I was looking at the clock the last service game. I was like, ‘I gotta hit some big serves and big shots.’ ... This was probably the most dramatic finish. I’ve never had to race against time. Playing tennis, we’re used to not having a clock. But honestly, today I felt the pressure. I'm glad I didn't choose basketball."
• Quarterfinals Match to Watch -- The lone Top 10 showdown: No. 4 Pegula vs. No. 7 Gauff. It's the ninth chapter of an All-American rivalry between friends and former doubles partners, a.k.a. pure box office.