Coco Gauff has said night matches at Arthur Ashe are ‘a little bit more stressful’, and the reigning US Open women’s champion had to shake off some early nerves on Wednesday night as she eventually eased past Germany’s Tatjana Maria in the third round.
Gauff, 20, who won her first Grand Slam last year, is now a fixture in New York, and the weight of that attention was sometimes felt under the Arthur Ashe lights.
The top-ranked American dropped serve on her first serve, struggled to get her first serve back throughout the first set and needed to survive three deuces to avoid losing serve for a second straight time.
But it wasn’t long before Gauff found her footing in this match and won 6-4, 6-0 to keep her US Open title defence alive in convincing fashion.
With the first set tied 3-3, Gauff earned a vital second break against slice-loving Maria to take the lead and hasn’t looked back since.
Coco Gauff advances to the third round of the US Open after beating German Tatjana Maria
Maria tried to stop the points with constant slices from Gauff that ultimately proved too much.
The German tried to slow down the points and make the most of Gauff’s power, but it ultimately proved fruitless as Gauff got out of her own way (she had seven double faults and 20 unforced errors in the first set).
It wasn’t a perfect night, but the crowd got to see her at her best when she hit a sublime drop shot to set up a wide-open winner that gave her a 5-3 lead in her first set.
She’s not likely to repeat that shot very often in the future, but she’ll surely want to carry the bravery of that moment into her next match as she attempts to become the first woman to repeat in New York since Serena Williams from 2012 to 2014.
Gauff isn’t old enough to buy a drink in the U.S. yet, but this — packed houses for late-night sessions, thousands of fans flocking to see her with their honeydeuces in hand — is now her reality for years to come.
He didn’t always handle that pressure smoothly on Tuesday, but in the end he did more than enough.
Even when closing out the first set, Gauff had to work hard, as she missed an easy slam at 15-30 before finally grabbing a set lead after another two deuces.
That ultimately proved to be a breakthrough, though, as Gauff began the second set by breaking Maria’s serve on the first two opportunities, and it was much smoother sailing from there as she put together a dominant second set.