Coco Gauff arrived in New York with more questions than answers after rearranging her coaching team on the eve of the last Grand Slam of the Year. Her second major in Roland Garros in June had given way to a summer rebellion of her serve, often characterized by spates of double errors and premature outputs, including a departure from the first round from Wimbledon. She has framed the change as a long -term solution instead of a quick repair, saying that she did not “want to waste time playing a way I don’t want to play”.
After two tense night sessions to launch her US Open campaign, the 21-year-old American finally saw himself on Saturday morning and went on to the second week of her home images for the fourth year in a row with a 6-3, 6-1 resignation of Poland’s Magdalena Frech.
To tackle her serving misery, Gauff Gavin Macmillan has engaged, the Biomechanics specialist who helped Aryna Sabalenka to insert her serving yip’s and to climb to the World No 1 ranking with three large titles. The first two rounds showed that the transition was bumpy for the No. 3 seed: a three-set fight against Ajla Tomljanovic, then tears on the field in a loaded victory over Donna Vekic. “It has been an emotional week,” said Gauff. “I think I needed those difficult moments to move forward. I put so much pressure on myself.”
This time there was no unraveling. Under bright sunshine instead of the Ashe-Slichters for a robust weekend of the Labor Day weekend, Gauff only made four double errors, built a 3-0 lead and responded, when Frech briefly was matched with insurance. She served at 40-30 in a tense seventh game and stood steadily with a 105 MPH delivery that made an error, clamped her fist and shot through the rest of the set.
The second set was easier. A bruises of 20-shot exchange went the way of Gauff to earn the first break, while another break at Love followed two games later when Frech’s mounted errors. The pole, sown for the first time on a major, could not harm the American as soon as the meetings were expanded. “She doesn’t give you a pace, maybe not too many corners to work with, so you have to create a bit of every chance for yourself,” Gauff said afterwards.
Her delivery, so fragile in recent months, became a source of trust. She landed almost 80% of the first services in the opener and only gave up two points on serve during the second set. Even when a fourth double error appeared when she tried to close, she wiped the danger with a fresh volley before she sealed the victory after 73 minutes with a quiet pump of her left pist. “Today I certainly think it was a step in the right direction,” she said. “I am more proud of the mental effort … Remember the things we have worked on in practice.”
The contrast with its opening rounds was grim. Instead of tense body language and second councils, she attacked from the basic line and looked to finish points on the net. The serve remains a work in progress, especially the Worp, but the rhythm was smoother and its self -confidence clearer. She even suggested that the tears on Thursday might have served a goal: “Maybe it’s not a weakness,” she thought. “It just shows the things that happen in my head … Today I felt a lot lighter at the court.”
For Frech, the World No 28, this was still a week of progress. She had never reached the third round of the US Open and her victory over Peyton Stearns created a career-best result here. But the Golf told Gauff in experience. The American, who makes her 25th performance in a Grand Slam main table, already has two large titles and has a 30-1 record at the Majors in the past two years against opponents outside the top 20.
That precocity places her under rare company. Only Venus Williams has reached more second weeks at Grand Slams among us women before he turns 22. “This is the level I want to play,” said Gauff. “I know that the competition becomes more difficult from here, but if I keep building from today, I like it where my game is going.”
Gauff gaat nu verder naar een heerlijke vierde ronde Clash op maandag met Naomi Osaka, de tweevoudig US Open Champion die 15e zaad versloeg Daria Kasatkina 6-0, 4-6, 6-2 om de tweede week van een major voor het eerst te bereiken sinds 2021. Het zal hun zesde vergadering zijn-Gauff Leads 3-2 in de head-to-head-en hun eerste in New York-en hun eerste in New York From 2019, when they win in 2019 in 2019, when they win in 2019 in 2019, when they win in 2019 in 2019, a 15-year-old wildcard.
“It would be a cool kind of déjà vu, but hopefully with a different result,” said Gauff. “I remember it was a difficult moment because it was such a hyped-up match. Looking back, I explained way too much pressure on myself, thinking that I had the chance to do something. I probably did, but I felt more expectation than faith.”
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