NEW YORK — Coco Gauff turned issues round after being a set down and beat Elina Svitolina 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 within the U.S. Open’s third spherical on Friday, extending the 20-year-old American’s protection of her first Grand Slam title.
The third-seeded Gauff made mistake after mistake within the first set at Arthur Ashe Stadium and dropped its final 11 factors in opposition to the Twenty seventh-seeded Svitolina, a three-time main semifinalist.
“She’s a fighter,” Gauff mentioned. “I knew I needed to play my greatest.”
However Gauff managed to reel off 9 of 11 video games in a single stretch and received regardless of shedding the opening set, one thing she did 3 times en path to successful the 2023 trophy on the U.S. Open, together with within the last in opposition to Aryna Sabalenka.
The key this time?
“I attempted to be extra aggressive on my forehand facet,” Gauff mentioned, “and tried to make much less errors on the backhand.”
Sounds easy sufficient, proper?
This comeback ends a five-match shedding streak for Gauff in opposition to opponents ranked within the prime 50 and could be simply what she wants to maneuver previous a latest stoop that noticed her win simply 5 of her earlier 9 matches.
Such a distinction to a 12 months in the past, when Gauff received 18 of 19, and 12 in a row, alongside the best way to 2 tuneup titles on exhausting courts after which the championship on the U.S. Open that made her the primary U.S. teenager to triumph at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams in 1999.
On Sunday, Gauff will play for a berth within the quarterfinals. That can come in opposition to the winner of Friday’s later match between No. 13 Emma Navarro of the U.S. — who beat Gauff in Wimbledon’s fourth spherical final month — and No. 19 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.
All the things started to alter for Gauff on Friday after 1 hour, 10 minutes, when Gauff broke to guide 4-2 within the second set, smacking a cross-court forehand winner. She celebrated with a yell of “Come on!” and raised her left hand to wiggle her fingers and ask the gang to get louder.
Quickly that set belonged to Gauff, who closed it with a 94 mph ace, shook a fist and shouted.
Within the third, with UConn girls’s basketball stars Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd sitting in her visitor field at Ashe, Gauff broke straight away, then held to go up 2-0 with the assistance of 1 38-stroke level that she took when Svitolina despatched a backhand large.
Quickly it was 5-1 for Gauff, whose solely late wobble got here when she served for the match at 5-2. She wasted three match factors and bought damaged there. However Gauff broke proper again to shut issues out.
