Key events
Gauff 3-6 1-2 Garcia* (* – denotes next server)
Gauff opens a must-win game with her first two winners of the set, finding perfect spots with her backhand. Garcia takes the next with a backhand winner of her own, but Gauff’s next serve is right down the center line and befuddles Garcia. Gauff then closes out one of her best games of the match.
*Gauff 3-6 0-2 Garcia (* – denotes next server)
Garcia looks like she could beat anyone in the world right now – which, this summer, has been what she’s doing. ESPN tells us she’s 28-4 in her last 32 matches.
Gauff isn’t helping her own cause with her own errors, but Garcia is simply in unstoppable force at the moment.
Somehow, Gauff gets to 40-30. Garcia’s aggression means she’s going to miss every once in a while. But the next serve is enough to put Garcia up 2-0.
Gauff 3-6 0-1 Garcia* (* – denotes next server)
Gauff double faults once more early in the game, and Garcia plays a brilliant point at the net to set up a break point. Gauff responds well to get it to deuce, then puts a second serve on a very sharp angle to get ahead.
Garcia, though, is simply pounding anything she can. And Gauff is misfiring, hitting consecutive unforced errors to give Garcia a break.
Caroline Garcia wins the first set
Garcia double faults, and it’s 15-30. She hits back to 30-30, then hits a clean winner on a three-shot rally for set point.
For the 100th time in this match (exaggeration), Garcia tosses the ball up and decides against hitting it. But once she resets, she’s a monster yet again, and she closes things out by forcing Gauff to scramble and hit a lob that sails out.
Gauff 3-5 Garcia* (* – denotes next server)
Gauff produces a highlight at 15-0. Garcia makes her rush to the net, and forces Gauff into a soft drop shot of her own. Garcia takes aim down the line, but Gauff shows lightning reflexes to get her backhand to it for the winner.
Garcia doesn’t touch the ball the rest of the game. Ace, double fault, ace. The Frenchwoman will serve for the set, but this is better stuff from the young American.
*Gauff 2-5 Garcia (* – denotes next server)
Gauff has had far too many points in which she ends up practically sitting on the baseline as she returns, completely unprepared for the deep, powerful shots Garcia is playing. When will she adjust?
As it stands now, it’s mostly a case of whether Garcia will make a mistake. And after an ace, she makes a couple, double-faulting and hitting an unforced error.
Garcia is playing intelligently, though. A couple of points in this long game are won when Garcia hits a forehand that sends Gauff far to her right, and as Gauff scrambles back to the center, Garcia simply powers another shot to the same place.
So the “hope Garcia makes mistakes” strategy might not be the best. Not when Garcia is showing the capacity to end a point with such ease.
Gauff 2-4 Garcia* (* – denotes next server)
At 15-15, Garcia comes to the net and hits a drop shot. Gauff again gets to it easily, but her shot is far too tame, and Garcia puts it away.
Gauff, though, is finding her serve, both with power and placement. She’s changing speeds and directions to keep Garcia off balance. She closes it out with an ace.
*Gauff 1-4 Garcia (* – denotes next server)
A few shouts get the crowd going at 30-15, and Garcia responds with an unforced error. Then Gauff pounds Garcia’s second serve for a backhand winner down the line, and all of a sudden, Gauff has a break point.
Garcia easily gets to deuce, driving Gauff into a corner and charging the net for a drop shot that even Gauff can’t reach. But a wayward Garcia forehand gives Gauff another shot at the break. And Garcia goes for a drop shot she never should’ve attempted, dropping it straight into the net.
Might be too late to save the first set, but at least Gauff isn’t getting blown off the court any more.
Gauff 0-4 Garcia* (* – denotes next server)
The crowd is finally filing in, perhaps a bit late to give Gauff a lift in this set. Garcia comes to the net for a smash to get the first point, and Gauff double-faults to make it 0-30. Gauff responds with an ace, then double-faults again to give Garcia two break points.
A great serve puts Gauff in control of a brief rally to reach 30-40. Then Garcia makes a tactical mistake with a drop shot that the fleet-footed Gauff reaches easily. But then Gauff hits it long, an atrocious unforced error to close out a game in which she gave Garcia three points.
*Gauff 0-3 Garcia (* – denotes next server)
Garcia is playing an all-or-nothing game, and it’s mostly “all.” A couple of unforced errors give Gauff a bit of a chance, but Garcia is just bashing her way through these games.
The rallies are therefore short until the last one here. Garcia drops the ball far to one side, and Gauff races over to catch it. Garcia then has the entire court in which to hit, and yet Gauff is able to get there and return, getting the first roar from the crowd so far. But Garcia ends the rally with a forehand winner and is in complete command despite Gauff’s breathtaking defense.
Gauff 0-2 Garcia* (* – denotes next server)
Gauff misses her first serve, and Garcia signals some intent by storming up to midcourt to smash Gauff’s second. Garcia then plays right up on the baseline on the next serves, which seems to be a bad idea after Gauff picks up the speed on her first serves.
Garcia, though, is hitting with absurd powers in these rallies, and she gets break point. Gauff fights back to deuce. Garcia again charges forward on the next point, only to be driven back by a beautiful lob that lands on the baseline. Then she hits a semi-lob that lands in the corner for the winner.
But that’s all of the positives for Gauff in this game. In several of the points, Garcia returned Gauff’s serve from well inside the baseline. Gauff tried to move inside the baseline but ended up having to dig the ball off the ground, unconvincingly.
Clearly rattled, Gauff finished with a double fault to give up the break.
*Gauff 0-1 Garcia (* – denotes next server)
Garcia starts nervously, missing her first serve twice and getting a let on the next. Gauff moves her from one side to the other for a winner on the first point but loses the next rally, and Garcia dials up her serve to 117 mph, which is 106 more than Spinal Tap’s amps to blast her way through the rest of the opening game.
The winner tonight will play Ons Jabeur, the fifth-seeded player who ended the run of Ajla Tomljanović this afternoon in a match that ended in straight sets but took an hour and 41 minutes.
As you can tell by Tomljanović’s presence here, this was Serena Williams’ half of the draw.
The crowd is late-arriving, but we’re ready to roll.
Insights from the prematch interviews …
…
None, really. Garcia has had a great year. Gauff has had a great tournament. That would explain why they’re here.
The matchup
Gauff and Garcia are comfortably in the top 20 at No. 12 and No. 17, respectively. Gauff is ranked No. 1 in doubles, but she and fellow American/fellow singles quarterfinalist Jessica Pagula were upset in the first round by Canadian Leylah Fernandez and Australian Daria Saville.
Tonight’s quarterfinalists have met twice, with Gauff taking both. Gauff won in three sets last year in Indian Wells and in straight sets this year in Doha.
It’s hard to believe Gauff is still just 18 years old. Three years ago, she beat Venus Williams at Wimbledon. The tempting narrative is that she’s the next Serena Williams (or Venus), but Gauff’s upbringing is considerably different – rather than honing her craft under her parents’ tutelage and largely outside of the junior circuits, as the Williamses did, Gauff was a staple of the junior scene and reached the US Open girls final at age 13, just five years ago.
Also, it’s rather unfair to set the bar at “Serena Williams.” That’s like starting a pole vault with the bar set at seven meters.
We have rain.
Fortunately, Arthur Ashe Stadium has a retractable roof.
So while it’s been a washout today for some of the doubles matches and all juniors matches, we still get our electrifying doubleheader under the roof, starting with young American Coco Gauff vs. Caroline Garcia of France. The nightcap will feature the man who needs no introduction at this point but will get a big one anyway, Nick Kyrgios, against Karen Khachanov.
Beau will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s how Coco Gauff got on at the weekend:
Coco Gauff used her superior speed to overcome a second-set deficit and clinch a thrilling 7-5, 7-5 win over China’s Zhang Shuai to reach the quarter-finals of the US Open for the first time.
In a battle between the youngest player left in the draw, the 18-year-old Gauff, and the oldest, the 33-year-old Zhang, it was the Chinese player who looked sharper at the outset, breaking for a 2-0 lead in the first set. But 12th seed Gauff battled back and fired a backhand winner to claim the first set and electrify her home crowd.
Zhang, a human backboard content to extend rallies from the baseline, grabbed a 5-3 lead when she broke Gauff with a backhand winner of her own in the second set. But Gauff remained poised, breaking back to take a 6-5 lead and winning the point of the match with her astonishing speed when she slid from corner to corner to elicit the error from Zhang.
The crowd roared in approval, chanting Gauff’s name, and Zhang covered her ears to block out the sound, which was amplified by the closed roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“It feels insane. I mean, Ashe Stadium chanting my name?” Gauff, yet to drop a set in the tournament, said during her on-court interview. “I was trying not to smile on the bench on the changeover. I was trying to stay in the moment.”
Gauff sealed the nearly two-hour affair on an error by Zhang and the two exchanged a warm hug at the net.
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