NEW YORK — Coco Gauff is not messing around. After a scratchy third-round win Saturday, Gauff came to the U.S. Open on Monday night to play.
Under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Gauff was the wizened veteran taking on the new American prodigy, Iva Jović, who was 48 hours removed from a magical three-set, three-hour win over her close friend Alex Eala.
The match, and their embrace at the end, captivated the tournament.
Gauff doesn’t have much time for tennis sentimentality these days. She has spent the past year breaking down and rebuilding the two most important shots in her game with the sole goal of winning a third Grand Slam title, and many more after that.
On Monday night, she took another big step in that direction against a player who seemed on the cusp of causing her some trouble. Jović didn’t do much of that early, but then she did, bending but not breaking, hanging under near-relentless pressure from the woman playing arguably the best tennis right now.
When it was over, Gauff had rolled into the quarterfinals for the third time in four Grand Slams this year with a 6-1, 6-4 win that served as another message to the rest of the field.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women’s Tennis
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