Coco Gauff defeated fellow American Iva Jovic 6-1, 6-4 on Monday to secure her spot in the quarter-finals of the US Open. This marks Gauff’s first return to the quarter-finals since her title win three years ago. The fourth-seeded Gauff took just 80 minutes to overcome the 14th-seeded Jovic, showcasing her experience despite facing a younger opponent. Jovic, 18, managed to challenge Gauff in the second set after a dominant first set performance from the two-time Grand Slam champion, who is only 22 years old.
Coco Gauff bested rising US star Iva Jovic on Monday to reach the quarter-finals of the US Open for the first time since winning the title three years ago.
Their net exchanges won loud applause from fans, and Gauff finished the match with a surprise serve-and-volley ambush, landing a volley that Jovic couldn’t put back in play. “I’m looking to many more battles out here. Despite the strong record against Andreeva, Gauff noted that most of the matches have been close.
In their last contest, Gauff defeated Andreeva 6-4 in the third set in the quarter-finals of Rome, shortly before Andreeva’s Paris triumph.
“She plays beyond her years,” Gauff said. Gauff said she served “really well” and called the win, along with a second-round victory over Spain’s Paula Badosa, her best matches so far this year. “I’m able to rely on a lot of different things to win points in many different ways, and I think that gives me a confidence,” Gauff said after Monday’s match. Gauff said some of the marathon rallies left her breathless, but she came out on top of them more often than not. “She’s obviously in a different mindset now, at the top of the game, coming off a Grand Slam win,” Gauff said of the Russian. “So I expect her to approach the match completely differently from in the past.”
