By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer
NEW YORK — Coco Gauff is the first American teen since Serena Williams more than two decades ago to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals two years in a row, so the 19-year-old from Florida knows her way out of trouble on a tennis court.
As the second set slipped away against Caroline Wozniacki in the fourth round Sunday at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Gauff needed a chance to think things through after handing over a break with a pair of double-faults and a stumble that left her doing the splits.
So Gauff turned in the direction of the near-constant chatter coming from Brad Gilbert, one of her two coaches sitting in a front-row seat, and said, “Please stop.” A couple of minutes later, Gauff said, “Stop talking.”
That was while Wozniacki was grabbing four consecutive games to go up a break in the third set. And then, just as the match seemed to be slipping away thanks in part to a slew of unforced errors, Gauff straightened out her strokes and pulled way. She collected the last six games for a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Wozniacki, the 33-year-old mother of two who recently came out of retirement.
“I was getting frustrated. It wasn’t really directed at him. It was just that I needed to reset,” the sixth-seeded Gauff said. “In that moment, I just didn’t want to hear anything. I just wanted to think about what I was doing.”
Her next opponent will be No. 20 seed Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion. Ostapenko beat top-seeded defending champion Iga Swiatek, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, on Sunday night, after 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic picked up a 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 victory over qualifier Borna Gojo.
Djokovic faces ninth-seeded American Taylor Fritz on Tuesday. It will be Djokovic’s 13th quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows, and Fritz’s first.
Gauff, whose best showing at a major was reaching the final at the 2022 French Open before losing to Swiatek, has now won 15 of her past 16 matches.
That run follows a first-round exit at Wimbledon in July and includes the two biggest titles of her career, at the DC Open and in Cincinnati. It also coincides with the additions of Pere Riba as her full-time coach and Gilbert in a role that’s been described as a temporary consultant.
TV microphones have been picking up Gilbert repeatedly offering his thoughts to Gauff during matches over the past week.
Against Wozniacki, the 2018 Australian Open champion and twice the runner-up in New York, Gauff was trying to find the right balance between being the aggressor (what she wanted) and not going for too much (what Gilbert wanted).
Gilbert’s “scouting reports are quite accurate,” Gauff said. “Sometimes you have to change things up. Today I had to change things up.”
It was the hottest day of the event so far, with the temperature reaching 90 degrees, and Gauff kept missing the mark in the second set, to the tune of 22 unforced errors. But she cleaned that up considerably down the stretch, with just eight miscues in the last set. Also key in the third: Gauff compiled an 11-2 edge in winners.
“She’s always been a great athlete. She’s always had the backhand, the serve, the fighting spirit,” Wozniacki said. “I feel like right now, it’s all kind of coming together for her.”
In the third set, with the playing surface covered in shadows, Wozniacki told chair umpire Louise Azemar Engzell it was difficult to see the ball and requested that the stadium lights be turned on.
“I would really appreciate it,” Wozniacki said.
Didn’t happen.
“She’s back and it’s like she never left,” Gauff said, “To be out here on the court with her today was an honor.”
Another women’s quarterfinal matchup will be No. 10 Karolina Muchova against No. 30 Sorana Cirstea.
There is guaranteed to be at least one American man in the semifinals for the second year in a row. That’s because 10th-seeded Frances Tiafoe, who got to that stage 12 months ago, and unseeded Ben Shelton set up a quarterfinal meeting with wins Sunday.
Fritz made it three men from the United States in the quarterfinals – the most since Andre Agassi, James Blake and Robby Ginepri got there in 2005 – by overwhelming Swiss qualifier Dominic Stricker, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4.
In the day’s first match in Ashe, the 20-year-old Shelton hit a pair of aces at 149 mph – the fastest by anyone all tournament – in a single game and earned a debut trip to the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows by eliminating No. 14 Tommy Paul, 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
When the match ended, the muscle-shirt-wearing Shelton flexed his left biceps while standing under the section of seats where his father, a former touring pro who now coaches Ben, mother and sister were.
“Straight adrenaline,” Shelton said about those big lefty serves.
OSTAPENKO DEFEATS SWIATEK AGAIN
Swiatek arrived as the reigning champion, as the winner at three of the past six Grand Slam tournaments and as the owner of the No. 1 ranking for nearly 1½ years.
None of that mattered on Sunday night against Ostapenko, whose powerful style disrupts Swiatek’s rhythm – and beats her every time.
Swiatek’s title defense at Flushing Meadows ended in the fourth round with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 loss to the 2017 French Open champion. The result also means Swiatek’s stay atop the WTA rankings will end next week, when current No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka will rise to the top spot for the first time.
“There are some sad emotions” about falling from No. 1, Swiatek acknowledged, while also saying of her reign atop women’s tennis: “It was pretty exhausting.”
Not long after being assured of losing her grip on that perch, the 22-year-old from Poland already was thinking ahead to returning there.
“For sure when I’m going to be, next time, in the same situation, I’m going to do some stuff differently,” Swiatek said, “because it was a little bit stressful, and it shouldn’t be.”
She also sounded mystified about what happened out there Sunday.
“I’m just surprised that my level changed so drastically, because usually when I play bad, I play bad at the beginning, then I kind of catch up or just problem-solve. This time it was totally the opposite,” Swiatek said. “I don’t really know what happened with my game. I felt no control suddenly.”
The 20th-seeded Ostapenko, a 26-year-old from Latvia, offered a theory.
“The main thing is that she doesn’t really like to play against big hitters. … She likes to have some time,” said Ostapenko, who accumulated 31 winners to 18 for Swiatek. “When I play fast, aggressive and powerful, she’s a little bit in trouble.”
Ostapenko also finished with just 20 unforced errors – quite an improvement from the 80 she had in her second-round victory last week.
When a reporter mentioned Sunday’s total, Ostapenko smiled and said, “Not bad.”
In truth, this was not necessarily a huge surprise, based on their previous matchups: Ostapenko improved to 4-0 against Swiatek over their careers. No other player owns four victories against the woman who has led the WTA rankings since April 2022.
After getting off to a terrific start to the second set, which she led 4-1, Ostapenko wavered for a bit. That allowed Swiatek to get a break back and pull to 4-3.
But that was only a blip.
With Swiatek having trouble serving – perhaps owing to all of the squeaking Ostapenko’s shoes did as she moved around during the ball toss while waiting to return – the contest quickly tilted in one direction. Ostapenko reeled off seven consecutive games to go up 5-0 in the third set.
Ostapenko broke one last time to end it, meaning she won seven of Swiatek’s 13 service games in the match.
And Swiatek could not explain why she did not have that same amount of mistakes against Ostapenko’s serve.
“My mistakes were so huge, and I had no idea why suddenly I couldn’t return,” Swiatek said. “I’m a good returner.”
Ostapenko’s first quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows will come against Gauff, against whom she has split two previous meetings. The most recent came in the fourth round of the Australian Open in January, and Ostapenko won that one.
“She’s a great young player,” Ostapenko said of Gauff. “Of course, it’s going to be another tough match. I don’t expect any easy matches at a Grand Slam.”
DJOKOVIC ROLLS ON
Djokovic did not encounter any of the sort of trouble he did in his previous match while eliminating Gorjo.
Djokovic – who has won three of his men’s record 23 Grand Slam titles at Flushing Meadows – needed to come back from a two-set deficit in the third round before eventually winning in five against Laslo Djere.
This time, Djokovic played far more cleanly and was in control throughout. He finished with only 12 unforced errors, while Gojo made 40.
“Just glad to get through in straight sets,” said the second-seeded Djokovic, who already is assured of replacing Carlos Alcaraz at No. 1 in the ATP rankings next week.
Djokovic won five of the big-serving Gojo’s 15 service games while only getting broken once himself.
Next up for Djokovic is Fritz, a 25-year-old from San Diego who is the only remaining player in the men’s bracket to not have dropped a set so far.
Djokovic owns a 7-0 head-to-head career record against Fritz.
“I’m not going to talk about what he needs to do to have a chance against me. I’m sure he’s going to try to figure that out with his coach,” Djokovic said. “I’m going to get ready, obviously, for that match as any other match, doing my analytics, watching the last match we had against each other.”
Fritz did not sound overly intimidated after clinching a spot in his first U.S. Open quarterfinal.
“I need to play within myself and trust that if I’m playing well, then that’s going to be enough, and I don’t need to kind of do anything extra,” said Fritz, who defeated Swiss qualifier Dominic Stricker, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4 earlier Sunday.
Djokovic has been impressed with the three Americans who reached the quarterfinals.
“That’s amazing, obviously, for the (U.S. Tennis Association), for the U.S. Open, as well,” Djokovic said. “All of the guys – Fritz, Shelton and Tiafoe – (use a) big serve, just very aggressive play.”
The winner of Djokovic vs. Fritz will take on the winner of Tiafoe vs. Shelton in the semifinals.