Coco Gauff fights through tears and serving woes to reach US Open third round | US Open Tennis 2025
Coco Gauff left the Arthur Ashe stadium Thursday evening with still wet eyes and a tight fist lifted high. The world n ° 3 had experienced another service test, this time against Donna Vekić, but it appeared intact – emotionally effiled but victorious – with a 7-6 victory (5), 6-2 which raised it in the third round of the US Open.
The match was less a triumph in a straight line than a public detangling and a recovery, a window on the psychological assessment of the overhaul of its most important shooting in real time. The seven double defects of Gauff in the first set recalled the low points of his defending defending last year, when 19 condemned his campaign. At 5-4 down, broken by two consecutive missed portions, she collapsed in her chair while trembling, buried her face in a towel and cried.
“It’s human, I think,” she said later. “As an athlete, people do not take into account us. People say, “You are not 3 in the world, you should be better”. But at the end of the day, if I did not take a racket tomorrow, I had a career, so many people dream.
Reset she did it. When Vekić called for a medical dead time at the end of the first set for treatment on his right shoulder, Gauff remained on the ground, the practice of strikes is used in the same place that the music released for an almost full house inside the largest tennis stadium in the world. The scene looked like an outdoor lesson in biomechanics more than a major championship. “It’s hard to change everything before such a big tournament,” said Gauff. “But I know that for the future, it’s the right step forward, and it’s everyone’s biggest test. It will only become easier from here. ”
The man responsible for remodeling, the biomechanical coach Gavin Macmillan, has been by his side for a short time before the tournament. He previously worked with Aryna Sabalenka to rebuild his delivery and now finds himself in the brilliance of the US Open of Gauff. “He’s not a media guy,” said Gauff with a smile. “For me, I just don’t want to drop him down. He knows 100% what he does. ”
Despite his crisis, Gauff has made his way in an equality break, where his superior athletics of the basic line finally took a tour of the balance. When Vekić threw a long hit to make the set, Gauff’s mother jumped from her seat behind Macmillan, shouting: “Go! Let’s go!”
The liberation took place in the changing rooms between the sets, where Gauff said that this water splashed water on his face and stabilized his breathing. She returned by looking composed. The second set told the story of a young player capable of compartmentalizing even if his service betrays her. She struck a single double fault, held comfortably and broke Vekić twice. The Croatian, who had beaten Gauff at the Olympic Games last year on the way to Silver, has faded under the tension of her arms troubles and his own era of errors. Gauff closed the match with a net winner on his second match point, this time sending a barbaric YAWP to the sky in celebration.
If there was a turning point, it can come from the stands. Among those in the crowd of Ashe were Simone Biles, fresh out of her own golden redemption at the Paris Olympic Games. Gauff spotted it between the points and pulled the force of the sight. “She is on my Mont Rushmore of athletes with Serena,” said Gauff. “All she lived mentally is something that I am closely. Seeing her there tonight gave me the recall that I needed … I was lucky to come to talk to her, so I was able to tell her that in person. “
The double major champion did not hide how this week feels. A three -set struggle with Ajla Tomljanović in the first round had already tested her nerve. “This is one of the most nervous tournaments for me in general, and in addition to all that, it is a lot,” she said. “There have been a lot about me this time, more than usual. But I think that today I showed that I could get up after feeling the worst that I have ever felt on the ground. ”
Even by recognizing the pressure, GAUFF relies on humor to survive. When an ESPN interviewer tried to brush his comment that “at least my outfit looked good,” she doubled. “Sometimes you have to be able to laugh at yourself,” she said with a smile. “Even after losing to Wimbledon, I said to myself, well, it was a bad loss, but at least my outfit looked good, so it gave people something else of which I am not a false positive person. If I am positive, I think”.
There is still a lot to repair – especially the service, a project likely to extend beyond New York – but Gauff thinks that the test turns it into something more difficult. “This whole tournament will remain with me the rest of my career,” she said. “If I can spend through two difficult games feeling what I feel, I know I can pass about anything.”
She then faces Magdalena Frech, the 28th seeded from Poland. The question of whether it can resist another control cycle will be the central question. For the moment, however, Gauff remains standing: shaken, in tears, but always a lot in the fight.
