Coco Gauff having a jolly good time at U.S. Open
Coco Gauff reacts during her match against Caroline Wozniacki during the fourth round of the U.S. Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Sunday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Coco Gauff is relaxed, in charge and having the time of her life.
The 19-year-old seems to have it all figured out as she heads into Tuesday’s U.S. Open quarterfinal match against Jelena Ostapenko. At least, that was how it came across Sunday after she won for the 15th time in her last 16 matches, defeating Caroline Wozniacki in three sets.
In a wide-ranging postmatch news conference, Gauff joked about fellow American Frances Tiafoe’s fashion sense, revealed that her new coach Brad Gilbert tries to get her to eat Jolly Rancher candies when she plays a big match and marveled at basketball player Jimmy Butler’s devotion to tennis.
“Frances told me at the French Open that he had something crazy planned for the U.S. Open. And I was like, You’re wearing confetti,” Gauff said about the outfit he wore to play Rinky Hijikata.
Stress? What stress?
A major title has never felt more in reach for Gauff than it does right now, especially after Ostapenko’s upset victory over No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek on Sunday. Instead of a highly anticipated quarterfinal clash with Swiatek, a player Gauff has beaten only once in eight tries, she will now face a player against whom she has a more even history. They have split two previous meetings: Ostapenko, best known for winning the French Open in 2017, won their most recent encounter, defeating Gauff, 7-5, 6-3, at the Australian Open earlier this year.
Gauff did not know which opponent she would be facing when she was asked to give a scouting report Sunday.
“With Jelena, she’s a ball striker,” Gauff said. “She’s hot or cold, to be honest. Same thing honestly [as facing Swiatek]. Just staying in the match. I might get some more free points with her, more so than Iga. Maybe not. Maybe she’ll hit so many winners.”
Ostapenko said before her win over Swiatek that all the pressure was on the No. 1 player, not her. She was asked after the quarterfinal win if she felt the same way about Gauff.
“I mean, that’s what it is. She’s playing at home. I mean, it’s normal,” Ostapenko said. “The crowd is going to be for sure, like, supporting her a lot. But I think that’s fine because she’s playing at home. Of course, it’s going to be a tough match.”
It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for Gauff as she enters the quarterfinal. Three of her four matches have gone three sets. In two of them, she had to fight back after dropping the first set. It’s that kind of resilience and fighting spirit that has helped win over the crowds at the Open. It’s also won over some big names on the tour.
“Coco is on the rise,” Novak Djokovic said last week. “She’s still young, but now [has] Brad Gilbert on her side with the great experience of coaching some of the greats, I think things are coming together for her. She played really good tennis in Cincinnati and also she’s been playing well here ... I’m sure that she has very high hopes for the U.S. Open, and she should.”
Gauff added Gilbert to her team after her first-round elimination at Wimbledon. Gilbert, an ESPN analyst and former player who went on to coach Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Andy Murray, joined the team at the Citi Open in Washington. Gauff won that tournament and won again in Cincinnati.
Gauff said she wasn’t sure at first about the 62-year-old coach, whom she calls a “really quirky man” who “doesn’t like to sleep.”
“My favorite Brad story is that he played just about every match with a Jolly Rancher in his mouth. He’s been giving me Jolly Ranchers all the time,” Gauff said. “I take them but I don’t eat them. At this point, I can’t have a Jolly Rancher every five minutes.”
For all his quirks, however, she said Gilbert puts together a scouting report like no one else.
“He basically knows every player, probably just from commentating,” she said. “He knows how to play them.”
Still, there are times that Gauff has to remind everyone around her that she is the one in the driver’s seat. It occurred when the second set was slipping away on Sunday. She turned to the coaching box and asked Gilbert to “stop talking.”
It’s not a move she might have made earlier in her career and perhaps that is the point. Gauff, who turned pro at 15, is learning how to trust her own instincts. She’s relaxed, she’s in charge and she’s having the time of her life.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
