Coco Makes Easy Work of Madison

Teenager Coco Gauff breezed by Madison Keys Friday afternoon to win her match in the third round of the US Open (6-2, 6-3) at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Gauff corrected early mistakes with her serve in the first set.  She then powered through the match as she defeated Keys with consistent serves, speed, accuracy and strong ground strokes.

“I was trying not to be so predictable with the serve today, because she has a great forehand return,” Gauff said about her serve in the match with Keys.  “I feel like now I’m getting an idea of when I miss and how to coach myself through the serve and I feel like with each match I’m getting better and better.”

The US Open tweeted Friday that Gauff delivered the “fastest serve of the women’s tournament” so far with a speed of 128 mph in Round 2. Gauff had two aces and three double faults in Friday’s match.  She sailed through the first set after she cleaned up early struggles with her serves that landed into the net.  She had strong returns, was quick on her feet, approached the net swiftly in opportune moments, and had successful spikes.  She won the first set with a lob to Keys that she hit out.  Gauff remained consistent in the second set.

27-yr-old Keys is no stranger to success and is a great player indeed.  She competed with Sloane Stephens for the US Open title in the finals of Women’s singles competition in 2017 and is now ranked at 20^th in the world.  She fought back in the second set Friday, however some of her base line hits did not make it over the net.

 “Maddie is not an easy opponent,” Gauff said. “I lost to her in Adelaide. I learned a lot about that match.” 

Gauff referenced the 2022 Adelaide International 2 Tennis tournament when she lost to Keys in the semifinals.  She said at the beginning of the year she got a new coach who helped her find her “identity” on the court and how she wants to play.

“I think in January, I was relying too much on my speed, because against lower-ranked players, I could get away with just getting the ball back,” Gauff said.  “Now, I’m using it as a weapon and not so much as a defense mechanism and using it to aggressively get to the balls and using it to attack the net, instead of using it to run side-to-side.”

Gauff, now ranked 12^th in the world at the age of 18 has never made it to the fourth round at the US Open before.  The last time she reached the Round 3 she lost to Naomi Osaka in 2019.  That was her first time attending the tournament.  Now more mature in age stronger, faster, and confident in her play Gauff advances to take on Shuai Zhang of China on Sunday.