![]() Gauff hasn’t lost a set here, but she had to come back twice Sunday to keep that intact. It's like, ‘You can't get past me today.’” I feel like a wall out there, she was running me so much. I wasn't thinking about Mutombo when I did that. “When the moment is right, sometimes I don't even know what my reaction is going to be after I win a point. I found, like, a chill,” said Gauff, who will face Caroline Garcia of France in a quarterfinal on Tuesday. “I told my team after the match, for some reason I'm so much more animated. She had to work hard to stay in the zone and avoid smiling because it was so surreal. The crowd recognized that and chanted her name. She’s a different personality from Serena but very similar in their fight, in their competitiveness.” But she has all of the presence and then some, off the court. And she obviously has to win one to truly be that. “In order to be the face of tennis in the same sense as Serena is such a tough one, following someone who has won 23 majors. ![]() “I think that’s been the hope and I think that she has the maturity and ability to do that,” ESPN commentator Pam Shriver said. (Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / Associated Press) Now she’s in position to succeed Williams as one of the sport's most prominent faces.Ĭoco Gauff hits a return during her win over Shuai Zhang on Sunday. 1 in the world in doubles but lost in the first round here with partner Jessica Pegula, has become more confident about her extraordinary talent and more comfortable with her place on the court and in the world.Īs a child she had a poster of Serena Williams on her bedroom wall. The onetime prodigy who reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon three years ago has grown into a thoughtful young woman who isn’t above giggling at ancient media representatives who were clueless about City Girls or the “period” gesture. Open, backing up her surprise runner-up finish in the French Open three months ago. Gauff was a 7-5, 7-5 winner and a first-time quarterfinalist at the U.S. It wasn’t a throat slash, she said afterward, but a way to say period, the discussion is over.įour points later, the discussion was over when Zhang netted a backhand. To emphasize her point later, the 18-year-old Floridian copied a move popularized by the City Girls rap/hip-hop duo of JT and Yung Miami, sweeping her long-nailed fingers in front of her throat. While cheers of a rowdy crowd swirled around her, Gauff looked toward her coaches and supporters and wagged her right index finger in a classic Dikembe Mutombo motion. Zhang responded with a forehand volley at the net. The moment wasn’t going to slip away.Ĭoco Gauff had used her range and speed to catch up to a shot by Zhang Shuai and return it with her bread-and-butter backhand late in the second set of their fourth-round match Sunday at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The set wasn’t going to get away from her. The game wasn’t going to get away from her. Coco Gauff celebrates after defeating Shuai Zhang during the fourth round of the U.S.
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