NEW YORK – Coco Gough’s first match got off to a rocky start at the US Open Tuesday night, with someone joining her to help her with her volatile serving. She double-faulted in her first game – and a total of 10 times. She broke even that game – and totally six times.
Of course, the only number that was really counted in the end was from the Arthur Ash Stadium scoreboard, showing that third seeded Goff finally held a 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5 victory and won Azilla Tomlujanovic to reach the second round at Flushing Meadows.
“It wasn’t the best,” Gouf said. “But I’m happy to go through.”
It didn’t come easily. Not at all. Gauff led twice in a break in the second set, but couldn’t finish things. She rose 5-3 in the third time, earning a 5-4 victory, but double-faulted for the second straight time and missed five forehands.
That might be too much to take. Instead, Gauff was able to stabilize himself, break it quickly, and offer it for his second chance to do it almost three hours after the contest began.
“I had so many opportunities. …I just said, ‘In the end, one of these is going to go my way.”
Gauff, who won the first title of two grand slam titles at the 2023 US Open as a teenager, added Gavin Macmillan to his coaching team just before the start of this tournament. MacMillan was a biomechanics expert who helped her services in the world’s No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka Retool a few years ago, and he was in the first line of Gauff’s guest box, sitting right in front of his mother.
After beating Tom Janovic, Gouf called the practice with Macmillan “really tough” and “mentally exhausted.”
“We’re trying to improve in each game,” she said.
The Gouf problem, in short, was the tendency to accumulate double faults. Her 320 Entering The Us Open was the most on the women’s tour this season, with over 100 more than anyone else. This included 23 games per game earlier this month, followed by 14 games.
On Tuesday, when she dealt with ongoing work on tweaked service motion, Gauff started with a product that was much slower than she could hit. As the game progressed, the tensions of the 21-year-old from Florida rose, he averaged 88 mph on the first serve of the first set to 101 mph at the third time when Ash’s retractable roof was closed. She cranked one at 117 miles, producing one second serve ace.
It was Gauff’s model court reporting and a great backhand that won this against Australia’s 79th place Tomljanovic, best known for beating Serena Williams at the 2022 US Open in the final match of her career. Appropriately, the downline backhand transformed the match point and Gauff shaking his arm overhead to smash the crowd.
Even if Tomljanovic left with her big forehand, it was Gauff who scored the best of their long interactions from the baseline.
She also worked well when she moved forward, earning 12 of her 15 points.
This was Goff’s first match in the slam since he came across the first round exit at Wimbledon in July.
As Gauff moves forward with Flushing Meadows, she will surpass Sabalenka and the second Iga Swiatek in the rankings, potentially rising to No. 1 for the first time.
