JAPAN’S Naomi Osaka has booked her second semifinal spot at the U.S. Open, in three years, to keep alive her pursuit of a second trophy at Flushing Meadows.

She did it emphatically on Tuesday, beating American Shelby Rogers 6-3 6-4, with her sharp serving and superior return game.

Osaka, the tournament’s fourth seed, swept aside unseeded Rogers in straight sets to set up a match with Jennifer Brady for a place in Saturday’s final.

The strong serving and superior return game enabled the 22-year-old to use only one hour and 20 minutes inside an empty Arthur Ashe Stadium to defeat the 27-year-old Rogers 6-3, 6-4.

Osaka, the world number nine, said her victory was payback for three previous defeats to the 93rd-ranked Rogers, with the most recent in 2017.

“Honestly, I just felt like she had the upper hand because I’ve never beaten her,” Osaka said.

“And those memories are stuck in my head so I consider this a little bit of revenge,” she added.

Osaka once again had tape wrapped around her left thigh but said it was just as a precaution.

“I think she’s a really amazing player, she has the variety that I wish I had so I’m a bit jealous,” Osaka said. “But, yeah, she’s super nice and I think it’s going to be a really tough match and I think we’re both going to try our best.”

Earlier, Alexander Zverev of Germany bounced back from a shocking start to oust 27th-seeded Croatian Borna Coric in four sets.

The first set, which saw Zverev hit 12 unforced errors, got wrapped up in only 24 minutes by Coric in his first career Grand Slam quarterfinal match.

But the fifth-seed Zverev raised his game and showed plenty of fight in the second set as he came back from a break down and overcame four double-faults and 15 unforced errors to level the match by winning the tiebreak before unleashing an extended roar.

The disqualification of top seed Novak Djokovic on Sunday has blown the men’s competition at Flushing Meadows wide open.(SD-Agencies)