Young Americans Gauff, Townsend post big wins
Coco Gauff pumping her fists and screaming “Come on!” to celebrate a Grand Slam victory is already becoming a regular occurrence. At 15, she’s now the youngest player to reach the U.S. Open’s third round since 1996, quickly proving her captivating run to Week 2 at Wimbledon last month was no fluke.
And what a showdown comes next: Gauff will face No. 1 seed and defending champion Naomi Osaka on Saturday.
“This is just the beginning, I promise,” Gauff told an appreciative crowd that chanted her name at Louis Armstrong Stadium during a 6-2, 4-6, 6- 4 win Thursday over Timea Babos of Hungary.
“I was tested a lot. I think we were both just testing each other,” Gauff said. “If I didn’t win that last point, maybe she would have won the match.”
The Floridian is putting together another captivating run, just like she did on the way to the fourth round at Wimbledon last month in her Grand Slam debut.
Another young American woman is making Slam waves: Taylor Townsend, 23, whose pure, raw emotion came through after she delivered one last crisp forehand volley to complete her 2- 6, 6-3, 7- 6 (4) upset of two-time major champion Simona Halep.
Townsend, a qualifier ranked 116th, clenched her fists, raised her arms and yelled, “Yes! Yes!” before patting her heart. Moments later, Townsend’s voice cracked and tears began to flow as she told fans in Arthur Ashe Stadium, “I mean, this means a lot. It’s been a long journey. Just haven’t been able to get over the hump.”
Townsend pulled off the biggest victory of her upand- down career with an entertaining, net-rushing, serve-and-volleying brand of lefty tennis against former No. 1 Halep.
“It’s been a long road. A lot of haters. A lot of people who weren’t sure. I mean, I’ve heard it for a really long time that I was never going to make it, that I wasn’t going to be able to break through or do this or do that,” Townsend said. “This was a huge, monumental moment. It was a very defining moment for me to realize that I belong here.”
She was marked for greatness long ago: She was the singles and doubles junior champion at the 2012 Australian Open, turned pro later that year at age 16, then cracked the top 100 in the rankings while still a teen. But a drop out of the WTA’s top 300 followed and she came into Thursday 9-16 at Grand Slam tournaments and 0-10 against top10 women.
Still, Townsend never let up and never gave up on herself over the years — or on Thursday, even though she knew full well she had lost all six sets the two women had contested previously.
She was able to put aside the early deficit of a set. And get over that she wasted a pair of match points, one via double- fault, while serving for the win at 5- 4 in the third. And steady herself nearly 15 minutes later, when Halep, who won Wimbledon in July and was seeded No. 4 at the U.S. Open, was a single point from winning this thing herself at 6-5.
“When I’ve played her before, I was just trying to make balls (in). I think I played not to lose,” Townsend said. “And today I played to win.” How did she do it? By moving forward at every opportunity, something rarely seen these days on tour. She won the point on 64 of her 106 trips to the net; Halep went 6 for 10. And Townsend serve- and-volleyed 61 times, Halep once.
“Never played with someone coming so often to the net,” Halep said. “Didn’t miss much. It’s unbelievable.”
It was an attention-grabbing result on a busy day at the year’s last major tournament, with all but nine of Wednesday’s scheduled singles matches carried over because of rain. The weather was just right Thursday, and so result after result poured in, including Andrea Petkovic’s 6- 4, 6- 4 elimination of twotime Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and, among the men, unseeded American Denis Kudla’s 7- 5, 7- 5, 0- 6, 6-3 win over No. 27 Dusan Lajovic, and unseeded Briton Daniel Evans’ 6- 4, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6- 4 defeat of No. 25 Lucas Pouille.
• Three-time champion Rafael Nadal got a walkover after Australian wild- card Thanasi Kokkinakis withdrew from their evening match. Kokkinakis withdrew with a right shoulder injury.
• Daniil Medvedev fought off cramps to beat Hugo Dellien 6-3, 7-5, 5-7, 6-3, and clinch a third-round berth, continuing his hot run of form over the last month. The fifth seed, who arrived in Flushing Meadows on a high after winning his first Masters series title at Cincinnati, said afterwards that he had struggled with cramps during the latter part of the match.
• Nick Kyrgios had a relatively easy victory in his first match since saying the ATP was “corrupt,” beating Antoine Hoang 6- 4, 6-2, 6- 4 to reach the third round. The No. 28 seed wrapped up the match in just under 2 hours, a few minutes after briefly losing his temper when he thought Hoang was allowed to challenge a call too long after the point had ended. He argued with the chair umpire and then asked for an explanation from a supervisor, but then got himself refocused and soon closed it out.