Coco Gauff is one step closer to defending her US Open title. However, she got a bit of a wake-up call in losing the first set of her third-round match with Elina Svitolina on Friday.
By her own admission, losing that first set made Gauff more aggressive. That approach, along with the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium cheering her on fueled Gauff to win the next two sets decisively, resulting in a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win.
“I think I tried to be more aggressive, especially on my forehand side and making less errors on the backhand,” Gauff said in her post-match interview. “I was missing a lot of backhands in the net so I was just trying to make less errors. She was playing well. She was playing aggressive. She was hitting her spots and I think the difference was just me being more aggressive, especially on serve.”
The pivotal point in the match may have been in the second set when Gauff broke for a 4-2 lead. Feeling that the momentum had swung her way, Gauff gestured to the crowd to make more noise. From there, she frequently overpowered Svitolina with her serve.
Though Svitolina appeared to be battling a foot injury, Gauff’s turnaround after losing that first set was impressive.
Returning to Queens appears to have revitalized Gauff, who struggled in her most recent tournaments leading up to the US Open. She lost before reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and fell in the third round at the Paris Olympics, demonstrating her frustration by arguing with the chair umpire about an out call. Most shocking of all was a first-round defeat at the Cincinnati Open to Yulia Putintseva.
During last week’s Media Day at the US Open, Gauff anticipated she would play better by being able to train more than she had for the previous tournaments. Yet she also had more time to train because of her early exits.
“The main focus was trying to be as ready as possible for here, which I feel like it was a blessing in disguise I lost so early, because I was able to actually train, which I hadn’t been able to,” Gauff said, via Tennis.com. “I do my best results when I come off a training block.”
The No. 3 seed advances to the fourth round, where she will play either No. 13 Emma Navarro or No. 19 Marta Kostyuk on Sunday. Gauff may want a rematch against Navarro, who defeated her at Wimbledon in the fourth round earlier this summer.