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ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM — Finally, seven days into the 2025 U.S. Open, Coco Gauff had a pretty normal day at the office.
Given the events of her past week, normal is pretty abnormal.
The world No. 3, two-time Grand slam champion and biggest star in the women’s game — especially in this tournament — recorded a rather typical 6-3, 6-1 win over Magdalena Fręch of Poland, the No. 28 seed who lacks the weapons to beat Gauff if Gauff isn’t beating herself. And she wasn’t, but for a brief spell when her forehand got a little loose and started flying long.
At this moment of her grand experiment that will test how far a star player can go in a Grand Slam while in the early days of majorly restructuring of her serve, that may be her biggest triumph so far.
Some 36 hours after Gauff experienced full-on tennis catharsis in her unnerving, error-strewn second-round win against Donna Vekić that was more exposure therapy than tennis match, Gauff played someone like some who had experienced the miracles of the talking cure.
On Thursday night, as the double faults piled up, she sobbed into her towel during a changeover late in the first set, then descended into tears during a raw and heart-warming post-match interview on the court. In her first-round match against Ajla Tomljanović of Australia, Gauff escaped an opponent whose ranking belied her quality and solidity, who made things as difficult as possible and nearly sent her out in the first days of what she hopes will become a fortnight.
Gauff let the world in on the turmoil inside her head and her heart, and that seems to have made all the difference. Playing an opponent whose strengths play into hers helped plenty, too. But here she was, hanging in rallies for long stretches as she has always done, and averaging about 100 mph on her first serve as she had not this week.
On Saturday, that was enough for a dominant victory.
(Photo: Timothy A. Clary / AFP via Getty Images)