Coco Gauff storms back after shaky start to defeat Elina Svitolina at US Open

It didn’t look to be Coco Gauff’s day.

The defending U.S. Open champion continued to falter in her third-round match against No. 27 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine at Arthur Ashe Stadium to start off the fifth day of the final grand slam of the year.

Her serve, again, wasn’t consistent nor helped her get out to a hot start. In the first set, only 45 percent of Gauff’s first serves were in play along with 16 unforced errors.

The world No. 3 yelled and threw her hands up in frustration and looked at her player’s box for any sign of help.

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However, she managed to string together more effective serves in the second set and rallied the anxious crowd around her to eventually go on to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in two hours and three minutes.

“It means a lot,” Gauff told ESPN after the win. “I knew it was going to be a tough match everytime I play Elina. I knew I had to play my best tennis. She’s a fighter… I served much better than last match. Overall, I’m proud and thank you guys for bringing the energy today.”

In the final set, Svitolina began to break down, unable to keep up with Gauff’s newfound energy. Gauff cruised to a 4-1 set lead, finally finding her level that she’s been looking for in this tournament and those hard-court matches leading up to the Open.

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Still, Gauff gave an opening to Svitolina in the eighth game, failing to close with two double faults and a backhanded winner from the Ukrainian that led to deuce.

In the following game, Gauff managed to break Svitolina, who netted an unforced error on the final play.

“I tried to be more aggressive on my forehand and making less errors in the backhand,” Gauff added. “I think the difference was just me being more aggressive on the serve.”

Gauff and Svitolina previously played one another in the Auckland final this year in January, in which Gauff came out victorious in three sets after losing the first to the 2019 U.S. Open finalist.

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History seemed to repeat itself on Friday.

Gauff initially struggled to defend her service game effectively.

She failed to convert any of her three break-point attempts and Svitolina kept forcing Gauff to chase on the baseline and the American’s forehand unforced error gave Svitolina the first set lead.

It took until the sixth game of the second set for Gauff to break Svitolina, who also made it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon this year. She had a forehand smash cross court winner followed by two forehand winners to break Svitolina and earned a 4-2 lead.

Gauff, who improved to a 68 percent serving rate on the first attempt, went on to cap off the second set with a 94 mph ace to start her comeback.

If fellow American Emma Navarro beats No. 19 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine on Friday afternoon, there will be a Wimbledon round of 16 rematch between Gauff and the 23-year-old in the fourth round on Sunday.

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