Coco Gauff's first-round match at the US Open delivered both great tennis, excitement, but also plenty of drama.
There was very little doubt that Coco Gauff's US Open run is a must-see television. She's playing some of the best tennis she's ever played and finally looking mature enough to actually win the whole thing.
Confidence was seen in Gauff when she confirmed that winning the 2023 US Open is the goal leading up to the event. She took a step towards that goal by winning the opening match but it was a tough one.
She didn't win the first set, which got everybody a bit nervous, including herself. The emotions boiled over with some drama as Gauff was unhappy in her opponent 'purposely' slowing down play. The crowd was heavily backing her and being quite hostile to her opponent, something she tried to minimize out of sportsmanship.
In the early part of the match, they were definitely cheering after she missed first serves. I don't know if the TV saw it, but I would try to put my hand like this or go like that in between serves to tell the crowd not to do that.
But then when it came to the time violation stuff, I feel like you as a player know the situation and also she knows, like, I'm American. I didn't want to tell the crowd to calm down, to be honest, because I know that they were seeing what everybody else was seeing. I think that's part of sports in general.
The players ultimately shared a chilly handshake after the match, with Gauff giving the crowd what they wanted to see. She tried to deescalate initially but ultimately the emotions boiled over and we saw a spectacle.
But, yeah, when it came to, like, cheering between serves, I did try my best to deescalate -- there's not much I can do while she's serving -- deescalate the situation. But when it came to the time violation, at that point it's sports, it's New York City, I'm not going to try to calm that down (smiling).
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