Tennis-Fleet-footed Gauff dances into US Open fourth round

By Amy Tennery

NEW YORK, Sept 5 (Reuters) – Coco Gauff reached the second week of the U.S. Open for a fifth straight year on Saturday, getting back in the New York groove to beat Spain’s Cristina Bucsa 6-3, 6-4 in the third round.

Gauff’s often-maligned serve undermined some of her play as she landed only about half of her first serves in, but the fourth seed refused to become rattled in front of the home fans as she sent over 15 winners. 

She next plays either fellow American Iva Jovic or the Philippines’ Alexandra Eala.

“Today was mainly defense, honestly, in the first set,” said 22-year-old Gauff. “Once I got my rhythm I was able to swing through a little more.”

Fourth seed Gauff dropped her serve in the third game but was controlling the tempo by the sixth, where she leveled the affair with a series of deep backhand strikes.

“Some players, you mentally prepare. You’re like, ‘This is going to be one of those matches.’ I don’t know if I did that too well today. I think I came in expecting it to be another way, because we hadn’t played a long time,” said Gauff, who showed terrific variety in a 21-shot rally to break Bucsa again in the eighth.

“She just does a good job of changing the pace. She can get a lot of balls in, really force her play — or force her to make errors,” she added. “She doesn’t make too many unforced errors. I think that was the frustrating part.”

Gauff never let Bucsa get hold of the momentum in the second set, where she did some of her best work from the baseline and committed fewer unforced errors. 

She earned the critical break in the ninth game with a terrific backhand winner and was poised as she tapped home the winning touch from the net. 

Gauff was a rare bright spot for the American fans in an otherwise dreadful day for the home hopes, as past finalists Taylor Fritz, Amanda Anisimova and Madison Keys all exited in surprise upsets. 

“Taylor was before me and it sucked to see him go down. I saw Madison’s match and Amanda, too. To be fair, they all played really high-quality level opponents. It’s just tennis,” said Gauff. “Some days just don’t go your way.”

(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Ken Ferris and Matthew Lewis)