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While Coco Gauff won her US Open second round match in straight sets against Donna Vekić on Thursday, the victory was anything but easy.
The American was left in tears at points during a difficult first set, where Gauff struggled badly with her serve and looked to be feeling the pressure of the occasion.
But, as she often does, the world No. 3 found a way through the difficult moments, wrapping the match up 7-6(5), 6-2.
In her post-match interview, Gauff started crying again when the Arthur Ashe crowd stood to applaud her. During her tearful interview on court, she also thanked Simone Biles who was watching in the stands.
The legendary gymnast has openly spoken about her own struggles with anxiety while performing at the top level of her sport and Gauff said she served as perfect inspiration.
“If she can go on a six-inch beam and do that under all the pressure of the world, then I can hit the ball on (this court),” Gauff said.
“It brought me a little bit of calm, just knowing her story with all the things she went through mentally, so she’s an inspiration for sure and her presence definitely did help me today.”
The first set on Thursday was hard to watch at times, with Gauff clearly battling against herself, as much as with her opponent.
Having started reasonably well, her serve then started letting her down and she was broken in three straight service games to fall behind in the match.
At one point, after yet another double fault, it all got too much and she started crying into her towel during the changeover. It was then a case of battling the tears throughout the rest of the first set.
Gauff has struggled with her serve over the last few months and started working with biomechanics specialist Gavin MacMillan before the US Open in the hope of fixing the issue.
She currently leads the WTA Tour with 320 double faults so far this season, with eight contributing to her problems against Vekić on Thursday.
She told reporters that she’s been working with MacMillan to rebuild her service motion and is confident things will improve.
“It’s been tough doing it all over and kind of refactoring everything, a motion that I knew very well,” she told reporters. “But I know for the future this is the right step forward, and this is the biggest test of them all. It will only get easier from here.”
‘Nerves and pressure’
The pressure of being the home favorite and her ailing serve all built up on Thursday, though, and Gauff said she felt overwhelmed on court in the first set – at times she was seen shaking in her chair between points.
But she found a way to win the first-set tiebreak and then seemed more comfortable closing the match out in the second.
“I think it was just nerves and just pressure, honestly, and I’m someone that usually can thrive on that,” she told reporters after the match.
“There’s been a lot on me this tournament, more than usual, which I expected coming in. So yeah, basically what you saw out there was what it was, and I was able to reset through it.
“It was a challenging moment for me on the court. It’s been a tough couple of weeks on and off the court, but I’m just happy to get through it today.”
Gauff will face Poland’s Magdalena Fręch in the next round on Saturday, as she continues her bid for a second US Open title.