Coco Gauff Steadies American Campaign at US Open
Coco Gauff steadied a bruised American campaign at the US Open, grinding into the last 16 on a day when some of the country’s biggest hopes crashed out around her.
The defending champion was far from flawless. She didn’t need to be.
Gauff survives tricky Bucsa test
Under the afternoon sun, Gauff faced world No 40 Cristina Bucsa and laboured through patches of frustration before closing out a 6-3 6-4 win. It was workmanlike, not spectacular, but it kept the home crowd invested on a day threatening to turn sour.
Once broken early, Gauff reset. She shortened her swings, went after her forehand, and leaned on her athleticism to drag the match back on her terms. Bucsa’s change of pace and variety repeatedly disrupted Gauff’s rhythm, but the American’s resolve held when her level dipped.
She sealed it in straight sets and walked off with the scoreboard, if not the performance, exactly where she wanted it.
Next up: a fourth-round meeting with either compatriot Iva Jovic or Alexandra Eala of the Philippines, with a quarter-final berth on the line.
Fritz implodes after two-set lead
While Gauff advanced, the American men’s bid for a long-awaited home champion took another heavy hit.
Taylor Fritz, the ninth seed and 2022 runner-up, looked in complete control against Federico Cerundolo. Two sets up, not a set dropped all week, and seemingly cruising toward a place alongside Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Alex Michelson in the last 16.
Then the match turned ragged. And Fritz went with it.
Cerundolo, who stunned the field at Queen’s Club earlier this summer, dug into the chaos. The Argentine tightened his game just enough, cut down his errors, and kept asking Fritz to hit one more ball. The American couldn’t. An error-strewn contest tipped away from him, point by point, set by set.
From 3-6 4-6 down, Cerundolo surged back to win 6-3 6-4 6-4 in the last three sets, completing a five-set comeback that silenced the stadium and extended the host nation’s drought in the men’s singles. No American man has lifted the trophy here since Andy Roddick beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in 2003.
Cerundolo’s reward is a fourth-round clash with Belgian 28th seed Alexander Blockx, who produced his own upset by knocking out Italian fifth seed Flavio Cobolli 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 6-0 6-3.
Paul set for Alcaraz test
If there is to be an American push on the men’s side, much of it now leans on Tommy Paul.
The 20th seed faces defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in a match that should finally reveal where the Spaniard’s level truly is after his recent return from injury. Paul knows the terrain; he has seen more of Alcaraz across the net than most.
“I think I played Carlos more than anybody on tour, for me, which is kind of crazy,” he said. “We’ve had some good matches.
“But, I mean, he’s the test, him and [Jannik] Sinner. They have been playing great, and I guess Carlos we haven’t really seen too much, but he’s obviously doing pretty well coming right back to competition.”
For Paul, it is a chance to turn familiarity into something more significant. For Alcaraz, it is the first real examination of his title defence.
Keys suffers brutal collapse
If Fritz’s defeat hurt, Madison Keys’ loss cut even deeper.
The 2017 runner-up looked to be strolling through against Qinwen Zheng, dominating the opening set 6-1 and then building what should have been an unassailable lead in the decider. She went 5-0 up in the third.
And then she froze.
Keys tightened, her arm deserted her, and Zheng pounced. The Chinese star dragged herself back into the contest, one game at a time, as Keys’ shots shrank and her confidence crumbled. The American’s lead evaporated, the stadium grew tense, and Zheng completed a remarkable turnaround to win 1-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-5.
Afterwards, Keys did not hide from the collapse.
“I feel like I obviously got off to a really good lead, and then I just got really scared, like I couldn’t swing,” the 31-year-old said. “I don’t know. Tennis just feels really hard right now, so I feel like that kind of took over.”
It was as stark an admission as you’ll hear from a top player, and a raw snapshot of the mental toll of a major.
Anisimova out, Andreeva and Swiatek march on
Last year’s beaten finalist Amanda Anisimova also exited, undone by her own mistakes. She sprayed 46 unforced errors in a 6-2 7-5 defeat to Austrian Anastasia Potapova, never finding enough control to mount a sustained challenge.
Potapova now steps into the path of French Open champion Mirra Andreeva. The Russian fifth seed handled Czech Nikola Bartunkova 6-2 7-6 (7-5), booking her first-ever trip to the fourth round in New York and underlining her growing authority on the big stages.
On the other side of the draw, Iga Swiatek had to dig deeper than the scoreline might suggest. The six-time Grand Slam champion and eighth seed battled past Czech 25th seed Marie Bouzkova 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-3) in a match loaded with long, bruising rallies.
“It got pretty physical, many long rallies,” the 25-year-old said. “It wasn’t easy.”
Swiatek’s reward is a meeting with Zheng, who arrives on a surge of belief after toppling Keys in such dramatic fashion.
Williams sisters avoid fine
Away from the singles drama, Serena and Venus Williams made a quieter kind of news.
The sisters returned to Flushing Meadows for their first doubles match here in four years, only to fall in three tight sets to Maya Joint and Chan Hao-ching on Friday night. They skipped their post-match media duties, a move that usually brings a fine.
This time, it won’t. It is understood the Williams sisters will not be punished.
On a day when American hopes took heavy blows, Gauff’s steady progress, Paul’s looming showdown with Alcaraz, and the sight of Serena and Venus back on court offered at least one enduring question: who will carry the torch here when the dust finally settles on this fortnight in New York?
