By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday August 28, 2024
Practice makes perfect, and Coco Gauff hopes that Wednesday's impromptu practice will help her dial in her serve at the US Open.
Photo Source: Mark Peterson/Corleve
New York— Coco Gauff is two matches into her US Open title defense, and has dropped just six games. You’d think she’d be on top of the world, and brimming with confidence.
Think again.
After her 6-4, 6-0 win over German veteran Tatjana Maria on Wednesday, Gauff headed straight out to the practice courts. Side note: It was absolutely boiling in Flushing Meadows on Wednesday but that didn’t stop the defending champion from putting in some hard yards with her team.
“I just hit serves,” Gauff told reporters in her post-match press conference, in the climate controlled main interview room. “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.”
Gauff only put 44 percent of her first serves in the box, and didn’t win a high percentage of those points, either (just 67 percent).
She says she doesn’t normally do it, but practice seemed like the right choice after her 80-minute night session in Arthur Ashe Stadium concluded.
“I really only do it when I don't feel great after a match,” she said. “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 today I didn't feel great after.”
Gauff, who will face Elina Svitolina in the third round on Friday, stretched her US Open winning streak to nine with the victory. She has split her two previous meetings with the 28th-ranked Ukrainian, defeating her in their most recent match in Auckland in January, in three sets.
She knows she’ll need to be better against the former World No.3, who owns a 24-10 US Open record with a semifinal (2019) and a quarterfinal (2021) to her name in Queens.
“I felt like my toss was too far in front,” she said. “I think I didn't serve as fast as I normally did in some serves. I think I was between the 110s and 115s. My last match I was getting almost every serve 120.”
She’ll look to be more aggressive against the 29-year-old.
“If I don't have an aggressive mindset, everything kind of goes all over the place” she said.
But she must be doing something right.
Gauff is now the youngest WTA player to win nine consecutive US Open matches since Maria Sharapova, who won nine straight from 2006 to 2007.
She’s now 16-4 lifetime at the US Open and 15-3 at the majors in 2024.