NEW YORK — The mantra rang out in cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday on the US Open earlier than Coco Gauff’s first service recreation of her first match of her first Grand Slam event as a defending champion: “Right here we go, Coco! Right here we go!”
Coming to Flushing Meadows off a sequence of early exits at different occasions, Gauff already was down 1-0 to Varvara Gracheva, having dropped the match’s preliminary recreation at love by making 4 groundstroke errors. What adopted was a troublesome, tight recreation, that includes 14 factors throughout eight minutes and three break possibilities for Gracheva.
The vital half, after all, was that Gauff saved all of these break factors, claimed that recreation and immediately was in full management on the best way to a 6-2, 6-0 victory that not solely put the 20-year-old American within the second spherical but in addition advised her — and everybody else — that her recreation is in higher form than it appeared these days.
“The final couple of weeks had been powerful, and I used to be like, ‘I’ve to do that and do this, however I haven’t got to show something to anybody besides myself.’ So … [these] two weeks are nearly proving all of the expectations that I’ve on myself,” the No. 3-seeded Gauff stated. “I’ve many extra years coming again right here, and I am not going to win yearly. Simply that perspective and simply having the assumption that I can — however not the expectation that I ought to.”
Day 1 on the 12 months’s final Grand Slam event went about in addition to doable for Gauff and one other younger American featured in Ashe: Thirteenth-seeded Ben Shelton, a semifinalist a 12 months in the past, beat 2020 champion Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. It was the final US Open match for Thiem, who will flip 31 subsequent week and is retiring after this season.
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“Clearly, she performs with numerous ardour,” Shelton, 21, stated about Gauff. “You might inform that she cares on the market. She’s into it each time that she’s on the courtroom. I feel that is one thing that the folks love.”
Gauff was not the one previous US Open champ on Monday’s schedule: The night time session in Ashe included 2017 winner Sloane Stephens in opposition to Clara Burel, adopted by Novak Djokovic — whose assortment of 24 Slam titles contains final 12 months’s in New York — in opposition to Radu Albot.
Stephens was eradicated in a surprising collapse, profitable the primary set in 21 minutes and the primary 9 video games earlier than falling 0-6, 7-5, 7-5 to Burel.
Seeded ladies’s winners included No. 7 Zheng Qinwen, the ladies’s gold medalist on the Paris Olympics earlier this month; No. 24 Donna Vekic, the silver medalist; No. 12 Daria Kasatkina; and No. 14 Madison Keys.
No. 9 Maria Sakkari stopped enjoying after one set due to an injured proper shoulder. The very best-seeded man out of the bracket throughout the day session was No. 15 Holger Rune, who was eradicated by Brandon Nakashima of the USA 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.
Among the many males’s seeds advancing had been No. 4 Alexander Zverev, the runner-up to Thiem 4 years in the past; No. 6 Andrey Rublev; No. 8 Casper Ruud, the 2022 runner-up at Flushing Meadows; No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov; and No. 12 Taylor Fritz.
Zheng is having fun with a breakthrough season that started with a run to the ultimate on the Australian Open in January and reached a peak when she claimed China’s first Summer season Video games singles gold. Monday’s contest was tough on the outset in opposition to 2019 French Open semifinalist Amanda Anisimova, however Zheng finally got here again to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
“Every part begins at zero. You aren’t anymore the Olympic champion,” Zheng stated. “Simply be humble and attempt to work, battle each single match, as a result of if you happen to do not battle, you’ve got an enormous probability to lose.”
That mirrors Gauff’s strategy as she returns to the positioning of her best triumph thus far.
Gauff got here to New York off the again of early exits in three occasions on the Paris Video games — not that she needs to neglect about that journey to France; she wore a necklace that includes the Olympic rings throughout Monday’s match — adopted by a two-match dropping skid on North American arduous courts. If she was making an attempt to start out from scratch, she did a very good job of it.
This wasn’t shocking to Gauff. By no means. She knew she did not play nice in Toronto or Cincinnati in latest weeks. However she additionally might inform she was hitting balls nicely in apply.
“Normally, that first spherical for me can typically set the tone for a event, whether or not you are enjoying nicely or not. … I had a very good mentality. Is that this going to say I will play nice the subsequent couple matches? Sure or no,” Gauff stated. “However I feel the mentality I’ve going into this week will likely be there, and hopefully the execution stays there.”
She wanted solely 66 minutes to win Monday, utilizing a few of her 10 aces to assist erase all eight break factors Gracheva amassed and compiling a 16-5 edge in winners.
“From the beginning, we sort of all knew that Coco was going to be an incredible participant, and she or he’s extremely mature and carries herself in a means that I want that I carried myself once I was her age,” stated Keys, 29, who misplaced to Stephens within the US Open remaining seven years in the past. “It is also very spectacular how she’s been ready … by the entire stress and the entire expectation that is been placed on her, proceed to do in addition to she has.”
The Related Press contributed to this report.
