Coco Gauff, of the US, returns to Caroline Wozniacki, of Denmark, throughout the fourth spherical of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023, in New York. (AP Picture/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
NEW YORK — Coco Gauff is the primary American teen since Serena Williams greater than 20 years in the past to succeed in the U.S. Open quarterfinals two years in a row, so the 19-year-old from Florida is aware of her manner out of bother on a tennis courtroom.
Because the second set slipped away in opposition to Caroline Wozniacki within the fourth spherical Sunday at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Gauff wanted an opportunity to assume issues by way of after handing over a break with a pair of double-faults and a stumble that left her doing the splits.
So Gauff turned within the course of the near-constant chatter coming from Brad Gilbert, one in all her two coaches sitting in a front-row seat, and mentioned, “Please cease.” A few minutes later, Gauff mentioned, “Cease speaking.”
That was whereas Wozniacki was grabbing 4 consecutive video games to go up a break within the third set. After which, simply because the match gave the impression to be slipping away thanks partially to a slew of unforced errors, Gauff straightened out her strokes and pulled manner. She collected the final six video games for a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Wozniacki, the 33-year-old mom of two who not too long ago got here out of retirement.
“I used to be getting pissed off. It wasn’t actually directed at him. It was simply that I wanted to reset,” the sixth-seeded Gauff mentioned. “In that second, I simply didn’t need to hear something. I simply wished to consider what I used to be doing.”
Her subsequent opponent might be defending champion Iga Swiatek or No. 20 seed Jelena Ostapenko. The highest-seeded Swiatek was scheduled to face Ostapenko on Sunday evening, after 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic picked up a 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 victory over qualifier Borna Gojo.
Djokovic faces No. 9 Taylor Fritz of the U.S. on Tuesday. It’ll be Djokovic’s thirteenth quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows, and Fritz’s first.
Gauff, whose greatest displaying at a significant was reaching the ultimate on the 2022 French Open earlier than dropping to Swiatek, has now gained 15 of her previous 16 matches.
That run follows a first-round exit at Wimbledon in July and contains the 2 greatest titles of her profession, on the DC Open and in Cincinnati. It additionally coincides with the additions of Pere Riba as her full-time coach and Gilbert in a job that’s been described as a short lived guide.
TV microphones have been selecting up Gilbert repeatedly providing his ideas to Gauff throughout matches over the previous week.
Towards Wozniacki, the 2018 Australian Open champion and twice the runner-up in New York, Gauff was looking for the suitable steadiness between being the aggressor (what she wished) and never going for an excessive amount of (what Gilbert wished).
Gilbert’s “scouting reviews are fairly correct,” Gauff mentioned. “Generally you must change issues up. In the present day I needed to change issues up.”
It was the most popular day of the occasion thus far, with the temperature reaching 90 levels Fahrenheit (32 Celsius), and Gauff stored lacking the mark within the second set, to the tune of twenty-two unforced errors. However she cleaned that up significantly down the stretch, with simply eight miscues within the final set. Additionally key within the third: Gauff compiled an 11-2 edge in winners.
“She’s all the time been an excellent athlete. She’s all the time had the backhand, the serve, the combating spirit,” Wozniacki mentioned. “I really feel like proper now, it’s all type of coming collectively for her.”
Within the third set, with the taking part in floor lined in shadows, Wozniacki instructed chair umpire Louise Azemar Engzell it was troublesome to see the ball and requested that the stadium lights be turned on.
“I might actually respect it,” Wozniacki mentioned.
Didn’t occur.
“She’s again and it’s like she by no means left,” Gauff mentioned, “To be out right here on the courtroom along with her at the moment was an honor.”
One other girls’s quarterfinal matchup might be No. 10 Karolina Muchova in opposition to No. 30 Sorana Cirstea.
There may be assured to be at the very least one American man within the semifinals for the second yr in a row. That’s as a result of No. 10 Frances Tiafoe, who received to that stage 12 months in the past, and unseeded Ben Shelton arrange a quarterfinal assembly with wins Sunday.
Fritz made it three males from the US within the quarterfinals — probably the most since Andre Agassi, James Blake and Robby Ginepri received there in 2005 — by overwhelming Swiss qualifier Dominic Stricker 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4.
Within the day’s first match in Ashe, the 20-year-old Shelton hit a pair of aces at 149 mph (240 kph) — the quickest by anybody all event — in a single recreation and earned a debut journey to the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows by eliminating No. 14 Tommy Paul 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
When the match ended, the muscle-shirt-wearing Shelton flexed his left biceps whereas standing beneath the part of seats the place his father, a former touring professional who now coaches Ben, mom and sister have been.
“Straight adrenaline,” Shelton mentioned about these massive lefty serves.
