Coco Gauff ecapes U.S. Open heartbreak as Mirra Andreeva wilts on Arthur Ashe Stadium
· Yahoo Sports
NEW YORK — Coco Gauff’s dream of a third Grand Slam title, and a second at the U.S. Open was crashing into a wall Wednesday afternoon.
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For one set, Mirra Andreeva, the 19-year-old French Open champion, was as solid as she needed to be against an opponent who had one of those sets any tennis player dreads.
Gauff had no feel for the ball. She could not land a first serve with any sort of consistency. Her forehand and serve, which she has been rebuilding in earnest for the past 12 months, fell apart.
Andreeva has been trying to manage the stress of living up to her success in Paris all summer. In New York, Gauff’s struggles were the ultimate gift. Andreeva was up 4-0 after 12 minutes, and halfway home after 27, 6-2 to the good.
But then, Gauff’s difficulties crossed over the net. Andreeva tightened and started spraying balls of her own. By the middle of the second set, they were embroiled in a tentative push-pull of nerves, neither player able to step in and seize initiative on a point unless they were first forced to do so.
When they went to a tiebreak, Gauff twice faced match point. She tried the only thing that had been working half-decently on the afternoon. She charged ahead, trying to force Andreeva to make a shot to beat her. Andreeva sent a lob long on the first one; Gauff got another error on the second.
From there, Gauff rose as Andreeva unraveled. When she completed the tiebreak escape to level the match at one set all, Gauff sent a roar through her home Slam stadium and sent Andreeva reeling.
Early in the third set, Gauff chased back after a topspin lob and sent it high and deep to Andreeva, who was waiting for it inside the other baseline.
She barely swung at it. It felt like something breaking. Another error on the next point, and Andreeva hurled her racket to the ground, coming dangerously close to hitting a worker.
Her heart had been done since the tiebreak. Now her tennis soul appeared to be missing, too.
Gauff cruised from there, finishing off a 6-2, 7-6(6), 6-2 win and getting the loudest roar yet out of a stadium which, for so long that afternoon, had held its breath.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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