Coco Gauff walked off Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday night with eyes still wet and a clenched fist raised high. The world No 3 had lived through another serving ordeal, this time against Donna Veki\u0107, yet she emerged intact \u2013 emotionally frayed but victorious \u2013 with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 win that lifted her into the third round of the US Open.<\/p>\n
The match was less a straight-line triumph than a public unravelling and recovery, a window into the psychological toll of remaking her most important shot in real time. Gauff\u2019s seven double faults in the first set recalled the low points of her title defense last year, when 19 doomed her campaign. At 5-4 down, broken by two consecutive missed serves, she slumped into her chair shaking, buried her face in a towel and cried.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels human, I think,\u201d she said later. \u201cBeing an athlete, people kind of disregard that side of us. People say, \u2018You\u2019re No 3 in the world, you should be better.\u2019 But at the end of the day, if I didn\u2019t pick up a racket tomorrow, I\u2019ve had a career so many would dream of. 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\u201d.<\/p>\n
Reset she did. When Veki\u0107 called a medical timeout late in the first set for treatment on her right shoulder, Gauff stayed on court, hitting practice serves to the same spot as music blared for a nearly full house inside the world\u2019s largest tennis stadium. The scene resembled an open-air lesson in biomechanics more than a major championship. \u201cIt\u2019s tough changing everything before such a big tournament,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cBut 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\u201d.<\/p>\n
The man responsible for the remodel, biomechanics coach Gavin MacMillan, has been at her side since shortly before the tournament<\/a>. He previously worked with Aryna Sabalenka to rebuild her delivery and now finds himself in the glare of Gauff\u2019s US Open. \u201cHe\u2019s not a media guy,\u201d Gauff said with a smile. \u201cFor me I just don\u2019t want to let him down. He 100% knows what he\u2019s doing\u201d.<\/p>\n Despite her crisis, Gauff clawed her way into a tiebreak, where her superior athleticism from the baseline finally tipped the balance. When Veki\u0107 flung a forehand long to surrender the set, Gauff\u2019s mother leapt from her seat behind MacMillan, shouting: \u201cCome on! Let\u2019s go!\u201d<\/p>\n The release carried into the locker room between sets, where Gauff said that splashed water on her face and steadied her breathing. She returned looking composed. The second set told the story of a young player capable of compartmentalizing even as her serve betrays her. She hit just one double fault, held comfortably, and broke Veki\u0107 twice. The Croatian, who had beaten Gauff at last year\u2019s Olympics en route to silver, faded under the strain of her arm trouble and her own rash of errors. Gauff closed the match with a crisp backhand winner on her second match point, this time sending a barbaric yawp skyward in celebration.<\/p>\n If there was a turning point, it may have come from the stands. Among those in the Ashe crowd was Simone Biles<\/a>, fresh off her own golden redemption at the Paris Olympics. Gauff spotted her between points and drew strength from the sight. \u201cShe\u2019s on my Mount Rushmore of athletes with Serena,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cEverything she went through mentally is something I follow closely. To see her there tonight gave me the reminder I needed \u2026 I was lucky to just come from talking to her, so I was able to tell her that in person.\u201d<\/p>\n Simone Biles looks on during Thursday\u2019s match between Coco Gauff and Donna Veki\u0107. Photograph: Eduardo Mu\u00f1oz\/Reuters<\/p>\n