Coco Gauff was unsatisfied with her second-round victory at the 2024 US Open and decided to head to the practice courts.
There is no rest for the weary in New York as Gauff plots to defend her title. She kicked off her campaign earlier this week with a polished performance against the dangerous Varvara Gracheva, winning 6-2, 6-0.
She then took on World No. 99 Tatjana Maria, whom she had defeated in her run to the Auckland title last year. The American was slow off the blocks as she hammered seven double faults in the first set and dropped her serve once.
But Gauff had no issue taking command from the baseline against Maria's unorthodox style, which generally forces players to generate their own pace. She secured a much-needed break of serve at 3-all and consolidated on that advantage to win the first set 6-4.
In the second set, Gauff needed only half an hour, breaking the German veteran three times to win 6-0. But despite the one-sided scoreline, the defending champion assessed her performance after the match, and she was not happy with it.
In fact, she was spotted in the practice courts shortly after progressing into the third round, working on her serves. The 20-year-old accumulated one ace to nine double faults against Maria, which is a worrying number.
She could only land 44% of her first serves and had to save four of five break points. In her post-match press conference, Gauff acknowledged her serving frailties and said she was fortunate not to be broken more than once.
"I just hit serves. Obviously I didn’t serve great at all. I got lucky. I think I only got broken once, but probably could have, should have gotten broken a couple of more times. So I just hit serves."
"I really only do it when I don’t feel great after a match. Like my first round, even though it was a quick match, I didn’t go back out after because I felt great after. Sometimes I just like to leave with that feeling, but I didn’t feel great after."
Next up for Gauff is a meeting against former World No. 3 Elina Svitolina on Friday afternoon inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium. The head-to-head is tied at 1-1, and the current World No. 3 won their most recent clash in an epic final at this year's ASB Classic in Auckland.
Svitolina has dropped one set in two matches she has played so far but looked in supreme form in beating countrywoman Anhelina Kalinina. And Gauff will most certainly need to cut down on the 25 unforced errors she clocked in her second-round match.
"I know I’ll have to bring my best tennis to win against her. I think she’s a good all-court player. She can do pretty much everything. She’s really solid from the back. When I played her in Auckland, we had a lot of physical points."
"I think the challenge will be just finding the balance between being aggressive and not letting her dictate, but also not making too many errors."