US Open Day 3 highlights: Coco Gauff cruises, but title defense is about to get tougher

NEW YORK – Now the work really begins for Coco Gauff.

The 20-year-old defending US Open champion has taken the stance that there was more pressure on her last year to win this title, when she was playing the best tennis on the women’s tour, as opposed to this summer, when her game has been slightly off.

“I really have nothing to lose,” Gauff said in her on-court interview Wednesday after beating Tatjana Maria of Germany. “I am 20 years old, I have one under my belt and I have the potential to do more whether it happens this year or in the future.”

It’s hard to know whether Gauff has found her form in New York because the opposition through two rounds has been favorable. Despite playing scratchy tennis for much of the first set, Gauff managed to take it from Maria and then play more freely after that for a 6-4, 6-0 victory.

But things get a lot tougher starting now. In the third round, the third-ranked Gauff will face No. 27 seed Elina Svitolina, who has made a US Open semifinal and quarterfinal in her last three appearances here. Svitolina may not be quite as consistent these days as she was when she finished in the top five every year from 2017 to 2021, but her top level – and her ability to thrive in long rallies – has the potential to frustrate Gauff.

The two have only played twice, but their meeting in January ended with Gauff taking a 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 victory in a 2-hour, 23-minute Auckland final.

Here’s everything else you missed from Day 3 at the US Open:

Match of the day

Andrey Rublev, who often overheats emotionally, was calm this time. It was his body temperature that was the problem.

On the most brutal day of the US Open, with temperatures reaching 90 degrees, Rublev had tried everything from ice packs and cold air hoses to stay cool. By the time he was on the verge of winning the match – having fought from two sets down – he needed to see medical personnel and was complaining of stomach problems.

But after 4 hours, 6 minutes, Rublev had prevailed 4-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 over France’s Arthur Rinderknech, who seemingly spent all the energy he had trying to win the first two sets.

Rublev, the No. 6 seed, has made 10 Grand Slam quarterfinals – including four at the US Open – but never managed to reach a semifinal.

Upset of the day

There’s no real pattern to Barbora Krejcikova’s results. She won the French Open in 2021 but lost in the first round the next three times she played it. She had never accomplished much at Wimbledon as a singles player before winning it out of nowhere this year. And though she’s been consistently good at the Australian Open on a hard court, her US Open record is poor.

Krejcikova’s boom-or-bust year continued with a second-round loss to No. 122-ranked Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania, 6-4, 7-5. Though she came into the tournament carrying a thigh injury and hadn’t played since the French Open, Krejcikova was still expected to get through this match. But perhaps all the obligations she’s had since winning Wimbledon, something she talked about before the US Open, finally took their toll.

Non-upset upset of the day

Peyton Stearns, the 22-year-old former NCAA champion at Texas, feels like the kind of player who should and will be seeded at the Grand Slams but hasn’t made it there quite yet. Ranked No. 47 coming into the tournament, no seed wanted Stearns in their part of the draw and with good reason.

Daria Kasatkina, the No. 12 seed, found out why as Stearns rolled to a 6-1, 7-6 win.

Seven months ago, Kasatkina managed to eke out a three-set win over Stearns in the first round of the Australian Open. But since then, Stearns has started to find her footing on the WTA Tour, won a 250-level title in Morocco in May and recently made the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 in Canada. She’ll face recent Olympic silver medalist Donna Vekic in the third round.

Big American clash set

With their respective victories Wednesday, Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe advanced to face each other Friday in the third round. Shelton, the No. 13 seed, beat Roberto Bautista Agut in straight sets, while 20th-seeded Tiafoe was dominating Alexander Shevchenko 6-4, 6-1, 1-0 when his opponent retired.

The two Americans played in last year’s US Open quarterfinals, with Shelton pulling the upset 6-2, 3-6, 7-6, 6-2.

“I’m excited,” Shelton said. “These are the type of matches I love; that I live for. To do it a little bit earlier in this draw, it still feels the same. It feels like a huge match and one that I’m really excited for. I know that the people love him here, probably more than me. He’s electric here, and his crowds are electric here. We’re good friends, and it’ll be a battle. It’ll be a war like the last two times we’ve played, but I’m more than excited to be out there with him again.”

Last year, Tiafoe was feeling the pressure of trying to repeat his semifinal run in 2022 and came out flat against Shelton. This year, the roles are reversed: Shelton is a year removed from his semifinal star turn in New York and will be considered the favorite. But Tiafoe, after playing below his standards for much of the year, has started to show signs of life in the past several weeks, starting with his close five-set loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the third round at Wimbledon.

"It's not easy waiting for this tournament all year,” Tiafoe said before the US Open began. “I'm so amped up. It's circled on the calendar every year. I love these two weeks and I love playing tennis after Wimbledon in the States. There's no better time for me.”

Serving up a statement

When you talk about the best servers in men’s tennis, American Brandon Nakashima’s name doesn’t come up too often. But the statistics say that Nakashima’s serving, at least this season, is elite.

As Gill Gross of Tennis Channel pointed out on social media, Nakashima is ranked No. 8 among the top 50 players in how often he’s held serve this year. And though his serve isn’t necessarily the hardest, he’s been able to combine good placement with the ability to finish points on the next shot after the return.

That trend has held up through two matches in New York. In Tuesday’s 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Arthur Cazaux, Nakashima only faced two break points. He saved all six break points in his dominant first-round win over Holger Rune. For the tournament, Nakashima is making 67% of his first serves and has 23 aces.

Nakashima will face No. 18 seed Lorenzo Musetti in the third round, an opponent who has been in great form lately reaching the Wimbledon semifinals and winning bronze at the Paris Olympics.

Thursday's top matches

• Two-time champion Naomi Osaka vs. last year’s semifinalist Karolina Muchova
• No. 6 seed Jessica Pegula vs. Sofia Kenin, an unseeded American who won the Australian Open title in 2020
• No. 7 seed Hubert Hurkacz vs. Australian Jordan Thompson

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: US Open Day 3 highlights: Coco Gauff cruises, but title defense is about to get tougher