Coco Gauff had a special guest in attendance as she progressed to the China Open quarter-finals.
Fellow Grand Slam champ Naomi Osaka withdrew from their showdown with a back injury with the scores level at a set apiece.
Gauff earned plaudits after her win for carrying Osaka’s bag off the court in a touching gesture.
She will face Ukrainian qualifier Yuliia Starodubtseva tomorrow for a place in the last four.
Olympic table tennis star Lily Zhang shared a video of Gauff serving against Osaka taken from the stands to her Instagram stories.
“my olympic roomie 🥲❤,” wrote Gauff as she reposted the clip.
“roomies supporting roomies🤝 (but I lost too fast in china smash oops),” replied Zhang, who lost to Nayeong Kim in the China Smash tournament – also being held in Beijing.
Gauff reached the third round of the Olympics in what has been a tough year for the 2023 US Open Champion.
She split with legendary coach Brad Gilbert last month and is starting to hit her stride – moving to world No. 6.
“It was a good match up to this point,” Gauff said after her win.
“I wish Naomi a speedy recovery. Nobody wants to win a match like this, especially at one set all.”
Osaka recently returned to the top 60 after taking a break from tennis to give birth to daughter Shai last year.
“Hi everyone, I just wanted to say I’m extremely thankful and happy to have played in Beijing,” the 26-year-old said after pulling out.
“That being said I feel like I owe little backstory about today.
“So I locked my back up during practice earlier and honestly wasn’t sure if I could even play but I just wanted to try.
“Unfortunately things just got progressively worse during the match.
“Totally worth it though.”