Gauff knew defending the US Open title would be tough — but she'll be back

NEW YORK — Coco Gauff knew becoming a back-to-back champion at the US Open would be hard.

She was likely aware that no woman had repeated at the tournament since Serena Williams won her third straight a decade ago. And Gauff knew she hadn’t arrived at the event with as much momentum as she had in 2023.

So after her first-round win Monday, Gauff sounded as if she were almost preparing herself for the possibility that she wouldn’t do it — and trying to take some of the pressure off her shoulders.

“Somebody commented on my TikTok and they were like, ‘You’ve won in life, literally and figuratively, and there’s no point in piling pressure on yourself on a victory lap,'” Gauff said. “I’m just treating this tournament like that. If you defend something, that means you won something. If you did it, that means you can do it again.

“So whether I do it again this year or not, I am going to do it again, whether it’s 2024 or not — I will do it again.”

On Sunday, playing against Emma Navarro in front of a capacity crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Gauff had her hopes of a repeat title dashed in the fourth round. The 20-year-old dropped the opening set, and while she managed to force a decider, she simply couldn’t overcome her poor serving. She had 19 double faults and wasn’t able to pull off another signature comeback. After two hours and 12 minutes, she headed for the exits after a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 loss.

“Mentally I gave it, and emotionally, I gave it my all,” Gauff said after the match with audible disappointment in her voice. “Of course, there were things execution-wise … obviously I wish I could serve better. I think if I would have done that, it would have been a different story for me in the match. … So emotionally I have no regrets, but obviously I wish I could execute things better.”

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Gauff is by no means the only favorite to face an early defeat at the US Open this year. Carlos Alcaraz, the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion and the 2022 victor in New York, was stunned in straight sets in the second round. Novak Djokovic, the defending men’s champion, was eliminated the following night in the round of 32. Both cited a lack of energy after the intense and grueling summer schedule, which included multiple surface changes and the Olympic Games.

“I spent a lot of energy winning the gold, and I did arrive to New York just not feeling fresh mentally and physically,” Djokovic said. “But because it’s [the] US Open, you know, I gave it a shot and I tried my best. I mean, I didn’t have any physical issues. I just felt out of gas, and you could see that with the way I played.”

Gauff, who was given the honor of carrying the American flag during the opening ceremony in Paris alongside LeBron James, played in singles, doubles and mixed doubles at the Games. While certainly an experience to remember, it made for a dramatically different lead-in on the hard court prior to the US Open than she had in 2023.

Last season, Gauff was red-hot throughout the summer and won the titles in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati. This year, she arrived at the Canadian Open just days after being bounced in the Olympics, went 1-2 in her two events, and lost in the opening round of her defense mission at Cincinnati.

But when asked if she felt mental or physical fatigue following the intense demands of the summer, she didn’t want to blame Sunday’s result on that.

“It’s a tough question because I feel like I felt ready, and I felt physically and mentally ready, but for sure I think in Toronto and Cincy, it was a little bit mentally draining, those tournaments having to switch surfaces,” Gauff said. “It’s tough when you’re trying to find your game. You’re just used to maybe a certain type of year.

“But coming into this [tournament], I didn’t feel any exhaustion. I was actually really excited to play. Yeah, I didn’t feel any type of things. I was just ready to go on court. Even today I felt ready to go on court. I was excited.”

Gauff had previously said the quick departure in Cincinnati enabled her to have some good practice sessions ahead of the tournament, and she was dominant in her first-round win over Varvara Gracheva, allowing her opponent to win just two games in the match. But Gauff struggled early with her serve in her second-round match against Tatjana Maria in the scorching heat Wednesday night. Though she ultimately won the match, she had seven double faults in the first set — and it was a sign of what was to come.

Gauff dropped the last 11 points of the opening set against former world No. 3 Elina Svitolina in the third round before turning things around. She raised her level — improving her serve and the rest of her game — in the second and third sets and came away with the victory. She spent time on the practice courts working on her serve following her second- and third-round matches.

But she simply couldn’t find a way to win Sunday. Navarro had upset Gauff in the fourth round at Wimbledon 6-3, 6-3 in July, and proved that result was no fluke.

Gauff, who had her best major result of the year with a semifinal appearance at the Australian Open, said she wasn’t sure what the rest of her season would look like, but was looking forward to having time for a training block, her first since before the clay season began. She said she would consider working with a mechanics coach and getting other opinions in hopes of resolving her serving woes going forward.

“It’s also just kind of a mental hurdle that I have to get over,” she said. “But, yeah, I definitely want to look at other things because I don’t want to lose matches like this anymore.”

So now, instead of Gauff, it’s Navarro who is the lone remaining American representative in the bottom half of the draw. (Jessica Pegula, who is on the other side of the draw, is the only other American woman still in contention and plays her fourth-round match against Diana Shnaider on Monday.)

It has been a breakthrough season for the 23-year-old Navarro, who started the year at No. 38 and is now projected to crack the top 10 for the first time after Sunday’s win. She has had career-best appearances at all four Slams this year, including a fourth-round run at the French Open and her maiden major quarterfinal at Wimbledon earlier this summer.

The 2021 NCAA singles champion at Virginia, Navarro won her first WTA title at Hobart in January and was a part of her first Olympic team in Paris. During her rise, she has impressed many in tennis, including Williams, the 23-time major champion, who was in attendance for Sunday’s match.

“I like the variety in Emma’s game,” Williams said during the television broadcast. “I never was a variety player, so whenever I see someone like her that slices the ball but also has a lot of spin on her forehand, I really admire that because it’s something I never really did. She can come in, she has great hands, and she does everything so well. She sees the court, she has a huge tennis IQ, and I love that.”

Navarro will next take on a resurgent Paula Badosa on Tuesday as both look to reach the first major semifinal of their careers. Badosa, who was sidelined for much of the 2023 season with a back injury, defeated Navarro in their only previous meeting, but knew doing so again would be a challenge.

“She’s very, very talented,” Badosa said Sunday. “We had a very big battle in Rome also [in May]. It was clay. It’s different. But she’s playing very well. She’s been doing a very good summer, also, playing good matches. Also, I’m expecting a tough one there. Maybe I will have to be more aggressive than her, and let’s see how it goes Tuesday.”

Navarro later called Badosa a “great player” and praised her serving and groundstrokes. She told reporters she was hoping her experience at Ashe on Sunday would help her when the stakes were even higher. Asked during her news conference about when she began to believe she had a chance to win a Slam, Navarro said she still couldn’t fully believe she was talking about that possibility now and called it “pretty crazy.”

But on the court, just moments after the match, Navarro sounded more certain about someone else’s chances to win the US Open title in the future: Gauff.

In response to a question about reaching the quarterfinals, Navarro first echoed Gauff’s sentiments about her future at the tournament.

“Coco’s an amazing player and I have a ton of respect for her,” Navarro said on court after the match. “I know she’s going to come back here and win this thing again one year.”