Smiling Gauff romps into US Open last 16 / Photo: TIMOTHY A.CLARY - AFP
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Smiling Gauff romps into US Open last 16
Coco Gauff shrugged off her early round struggles to move into the last 16 of the US Open on Saturday with a straight-sets victory over Poland's Magdalena Frech.
Gauff, who had been reduced to tears during a laboured win over Donna Vekic on Thursday, produced her best performance of the tournament to down 28th seed Frech 6-3, 6-1 in one hour 13 minutes.
The American third seed's preparations for the US Open were thrown into turmoil when she took the decision to shake up her coaching team in an effort to improve her service game, just days before competition got under way.
While her serve remained a problem in the opening rounds, Gauff got it working smoothly in Saturday's match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court.
She conceded just two break points during the entire match, and was broken only once, while winning 71 percent of her points on first serve.
"It's been an emotional week, but I think I needed those tough moments to move forward," Gauff said afterwards. "I think today showed I was really having fun out there."
Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion, had gone ahead early, breaking Frech on her first service game before holding to take a 3-0 lead.
Gauff was broken in the fifth game to allow Frech back into the match at 3-3, but the home hope promptly rattled off the next three games to take the first set.
Gauff then sprinted away with the second set, breaking Frech in the third game and holding to make it 3-1.
She then broke Frech twice more to wrap up a victory which sends her into a fourth round meeting with either Japan's Naomi Osaka or Australia's Daria Kasatkina, who play later Saturday.
Z.Papadakis--AN-GR
