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Sport in Seriousness
NEW YORK – Now the work really begins for Coco Gauff.
The 20-year-old defending US Open champion believes there was more pressure on her to win the title last year, when she played the best tennis on the women’s tour, than this summer, when her game was not quite as good.
“I really have nothing to lose,” Gauff said in her on-court interview on Wednesday after beating Germany’s Tatjana Maria. “I’m 20 years old, I’ve had a year and I have the potential to achieve even more, whether it happens this year or in the future.”
It’s hard to say whether Gauff has found her form again in New York, as her opponents in the first two rounds were well-matched. Although Gauff played scratchily for much of the first set, she managed to take the game away from Maria and play more freely after that, leading to a 6-4, 6-0 victory.
But things get much more difficult from here on out. In the third round, third-seeded Gauff will face 27th-seeded Elina Switolina, who has reached a US Open semifinal and quarterfinal in her last three appearances here. Switolina may not be quite as consistent these days as she was when she finished in the top five every year from 2017 to 2021, but her elite level – and ability to shine in long rallies – has the potential to frustrate Gauff.
The two have only played each other twice, but their meeting in January ended with a 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 victory for Gauff in the 2-hour, 23-minute final in Auckland.
Here’s everything else you missed on day three of the US Open:
Match of the day
Andrey Rublev, who often overheats emotionally, remained calm this time. The problem was his body temperature.
On the most brutal day of the US Open, with temperatures reaching 32 degrees Celsius, Rublev had tried everything to cool himself down, from ice packs to cold air hoses. When he was on the verge of winning the match – after already fighting back two sets – he had to go to the doctor complaining of stomach problems.
But after 4 hours and 6 minutes, Rublev had prevailed 4:6, 5:7, 6:1, 6:2, 6:2 against Frenchman Arthur Rinderknech, who had apparently used all his energy to win the first two sets.
Rublev, seeded No. 6, has reached 10 Grand Slam quarterfinals, including four at the US Open, but has never made it to the semifinals.
Surprise of the day
There is no real pattern in Barbora Krejcikova’s results. She won the 2021 French Open but lost in the first round the next three times she competed there. She had never accomplished much as a singles player at Wimbledon before winning it out of nowhere this year. And while she has been consistently good on hard court at the Australian Open, her record at the US Open is poor.
Krejcikova’s up-or-down year continued with a second-round loss to 122nd-seeded Romanian Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-4, 7-5. Despite coming into the tournament with a thigh injury and not having played since the French Open, Krejcikova was still expected to get through this match. But perhaps all the commitments she’s had since winning Wimbledon, which she spoke about before the US Open, finally took their toll.
The surprise of the day that was no surprise
Peyton Stearns, the 22-year-old former NCAA champion from Texas, is the type of player who should and will be seeded at the Grand Slams but hasn’t made it yet. Ranked No. 47 before the tournament, no seed wanted Stearns in their part of the draw, and for good reason.
Daria Kasatkina, the No. 12 seed, learned the reason as Stearns rolled to a 6-1, 7-6 victory.
Seven months ago, Kasatkina managed to pull off a three-set win over Stearns in the first round of the Australian Open. But since then, Stearns has started to find her feet on the WTA tour, winning a 250-level title in Morocco in May and recently reaching the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 in Canada. She will face recent Olympic silver medalist Donna Vekic in the third round.
Big American duel is coming
Coming off their respective victories on Wednesday, Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe faced off in the third round on Friday. Shelton, the 13th seed, defeated Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets, while 20th seed Tiafoe dominated Alexander Shevchenko 6-4, 6-1, 1-0 when his opponent retired.
The two Americans played in the quarterfinals of the US Open last year, with Shelton causing a surprise win of 6:2, 3:6, 7:6 and 6:2.
“I’m excited,” Shelton said. “These are the type of matches I love, I live for. To have made it a little earlier in this draw still feels the same. It feels like a huge match and one that I’m really looking forward to. I know the people here love him, probably more than I do. He’s electric here and his crowd is electric here. We’re good friends and it’s going to be a battle. It’s going to be a war like the last two times we played, but I’m beyond excited to be back out there with him.”
Last year, Tiafoe faced pressure to repeat his semifinal appearance in 2022 and lost to Shelton. This year, the roles are reversed: Shelton is a year removed from his semifinal appearance in New York and is considered the favorite. But Tiafoe, who played below his standards for much of the year, has started to show signs of life in recent weeks, starting with his narrow five-set loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the third round at Wimbledon.
“It’s not easy to wait all year for this tournament,” Tiafoe said before the start of the US Open. “I’m so excited. It’s marked on the calendar every year. I love these two weeks and I love playing tennis in the USA after Wimbledon. There’s no better time for me.”
Make a statement
When talking about the best servers in men’s tennis, the name of American Brandon Nakashima doesn’t come up too often. But the statistics say that Nakashima’s serve, at least this season, is among the elite.
As Gill Gross of the Tennis Channel pointed out on social media, Nakashima is ranked 8th among the top 50 players this year in terms of the frequency of his serve. And while his serve isn’t necessarily the most difficult, he manages to combine good placement with the ability to score points on the next shot after returning.
That trend has continued in two matches in New York. In Tuesday’s 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 win over Arthur Cazaux, Nakashima faced just two break points. In his dominant first-round win over Holger Rune, he saved all six break points. In the tournament, Nakashima is hitting 67% of his first serves and has 23 aces.
Nakashima will face 18th seed Lorenzo Musetti in the third round, an opponent who has been in top form recently, reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon and winning bronze at the Paris Olympics.
Thursday’s top games
- Two-time champion Naomi Osaka against last year’s semi-finalist Karolina Muchova
- No. 6 seed Jessica Pegula against Sofia Kenin, an unseeded American who won the 2020 Australian Open title
- No. 7 in the seeding list: Hubert Hurkacz against Australian Jordan Thompson
