NEW YORK. – American teenager Coco Gauff used her superior speed to overcome a second set deficit and pull off a thrilling 7-5, 7-5 win over China’s Zhang Shuai to reach the quarterfinals of the US Open for the first time.
With Serena Williams’ loss on Friday night (Saturday in Manila) likely signaling the end of her legendary career, American tennis fans are eager to see someone emerge in her place, and many have put their hopes on the amiable, hard-serving Gauff.
“It feels insane,” Gauff said in an on-court interview after sealing the win to set up a showdown with in-form Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).
“I mean, Ashe Stadium chanting my name, I was trying not to smile on the bench on the last changeover, I was trying to stay in the moment. But in my head, I was smiling.
“I can’t believe you guys were chanting like that. It’s crazy.”
In a battle between the youngest player left in the draw, the 18-year-old Gauff, and the oldest, the 33-year-old Zhang, it was the Chinese player who looked sharper at the outset, breaking for a 2-0 lead in the first set.
But 12th seed Gauff kept her poise to break back and fired a two-handed backhand winner to claim the first set and electrify the supportive crowd.
Zhang, a human backboard content to extend rallies from the baseline, grabbed a 5-3 lead in the second when she broke Gauff with a backhand winner of her own.
Tunisian fifth seed Ons Jabeur, runner-up at Wimbledon, extended her career-best run in New York by beating Veronika Kudermetova 7-6 (1), 6-4 to set up a meeting with Ajla Tomljanovic.
Jabeur found herself trailing 5-2 as the 18th-seeded Kudermetova made a fast start with pinpoint backhand that ran the Wimbledon runner-up ragged in the night’s final match at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
But the 28-year-old managed to find her range to start dominating the baseline rallies and after levelling things at 5-5 she dictated terms in the tiebreaker to take the frame.
Jabeur, who lost the Wimbledon final to Kazakh Elena Rybakina, had to dig deep again to hold serve at the start of the second set but then got the crucial break in the fourth game to nose ahead.
With Jabeur serving for the match, however, Kudermetova got the break back, but the Tunisian breached the Russian’s delivery in the next game to close out the contest.
Jabeur let out a huge shriek after Kudermetova sent a forehand long on matchpoint for her 24th unforced error of the night. It was her first win against the Russian in four attempts.
“It was a very difficult match,” Jabeur said in her on-court interview.
“As you can see, at the beginning she was 5-2 up and it’s very tough to play her, very frustrating for me, but I had to accept it and keep building. In the end, everything clicked together.
