NEW YORK — The mantra rang out in cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday on the US Open earlier than Coco Gauff’s first service recreation of her first match of her first Grand Slam match as a defending champion: “Right here we go, Coco! Right here we go!”
Coming to Flushing Meadows off a collection of early exits at different occasions, Gauff already was down 1-0 to Varvara Gracheva, having dropped the match’s preliminary recreation at love by making 4 groundstroke errors. What adopted was a tricky, tight recreation, that includes 14 factors throughout eight minutes and three break probabilities for Gracheva.
The necessary half, in fact, was that Gauff saved all of these break factors, claimed that recreation and all of a sudden was in full management on the way in which to a 6-2, 6-0 victory that not solely put the 20-year-old American within the second spherical but in addition instructed her — and everybody else — that her recreation is in higher form than it appeared these days.
“The final couple of weeks have been robust, and I used to be like, ‘I’ve to do that and try this, however I haven’t got to show something to anybody besides myself.’ So … [these] two weeks are nearly proving all of the expectations that I’ve on myself,” the No. 3-seeded Gauff stated. “I’ve many extra years coming again right here, and I am not going to win yearly. Simply that perspective and simply having the idea that I can — however not the expectation that I ought to.”
Day 1 on the yr’s final Grand Slam match went about in addition to potential for Gauff and one other younger American featured in Ashe: Thirteenth-seeded Ben Shelton, a semifinalist a yr in the past, beat 2020 champion Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. It was the final US Open match for Thiem, who will flip 31 subsequent week and is retiring after this season.
“Clearly, she performs with a number of ardour,” Shelton, 21, stated about Gauff. “You possibly can inform that she cares on the market. She’s into it each time that she’s on the court docket. I feel that is one thing that the individuals love.”
Gauff was not the one previous US Open champ on Monday’s schedule: The evening session in Ashe included 2017 winner Sloane Stephens towards Clara Burel, adopted by Novak Djokovic — whose assortment of 24 Slam titles consists of final yr’s in New York — towards Radu Albot.
Seeded ladies’s winners included No. 7 Zheng Qinwen, the ladies’s gold medalist on the Paris Olympics earlier this month; No. 24 Donna Vekic, the silver medalist; No. 12 Daria Kasatkina; and No. 14 Madison Keys.
No. 9 Maria Sakkari stopped taking part in after one set due to an injured proper shoulder. The best-seeded man out of the bracket in the course of the day session was No. 15 Holger Rune, who was eradicated by Brandon Nakashima of america 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.
Among the many males’s seeds advancing have been No. 4 Alexander Zverev, the runner-up to Thiem 4 years in the past; No. 6 Andrey Rublev; No. 8 Casper Ruud, the 2022 runner-up at Flushing Meadows; No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov; and No. 12 Taylor Fritz.
Zheng is having fun with a breakthrough season that started with a run to the ultimate on the Australian Open in January and reached a peak when she claimed China’s first Summer season Video games singles gold. Monday’s contest was tough on the outset towards 2019 French Open semifinalist Amanda Anisimova, however Zheng ultimately got here again to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
“All the pieces begins at zero. You aren’t anymore the Olympic champion,” Zheng stated. “Simply be humble and attempt to work, combat each single match, as a result of if you happen to do not combat, you will have an enormous likelihood to lose.”
That mirrors Gauff’s method as she returns to the location of her best triumph up to now.
Gauff got here to New York off the again of early exits in three occasions on the Paris Video games — not that she desires to neglect about that journey to France; she wore a necklace that includes the Olympic rings throughout Monday’s match — adopted by a two-match shedding skid on North American onerous courts. If she was making an attempt to begin from scratch, she did job of it.
This wasn’t stunning to Gauff. In no way. She knew she did not play nice in Toronto or Cincinnati in latest weeks. However she additionally might inform she was hitting balls effectively in apply.
“Normally, that first spherical for me can typically set the tone for a match, whether or not you are taking part in effectively or not. … I had mentality. Is that this going to say I’ll play nice the subsequent couple matches? Sure or no,” Gauff stated. “However I feel the mentality I’ve going into this week will probably be there, and hopefully the execution stays there.”
She solely wanted 66 minutes to win Monday, utilizing a few of her 10 aces to assist erase all eight break factors Gracheva accrued and compiling a 16-5 edge in winners.
“From the beginning, we sort of all knew that Coco was going to be an incredible participant, and he or she’s extremely mature and carries herself in a method that I want that I carried myself after I was her age,” stated Keys, 29, who misplaced to Stephens within the US Open last seven years in the past. “It is also very spectacular how she’s been ready … via all the strain and all the expectation that is been placed on her, proceed to do in addition to she has.”
