Coco Gauff’s mindset going into her U.S. Open title defense changed last week upon reading a confidence-boosting TikTok comment.
“My new motto is: If you defend, that means you won something before,” she said last Friday. “The comment said, you’ve won literally and figuratively. Why stress yourself out over a victory lap? I was like, that’s actually a good perspective. No one can take that from me, so why stress myself over something that I already have? I’m just wanting to add to that, whether it happens here in two weeks or next year here or at Australia or whatever, there’s no point. So I think I saw that comment, like, three days ago, and I was, like, OK, I’m going to stick by that and use that, because it really changed my perspective coming into this.”
Gauff then went out Monday and swept 66th-ranked Frenchwoman Varvara Gracheva 6-2, 6-0 to reach the second round in Queens.
She wore an Olympic rings necklace, exactly one month after serving as a U.S. flag bearer with LeBron James at the Opening Ceremony in Paris.
U.S. OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Order of Play
“I might as well flex that,” Gauff said of the necklace, which doubles player Desirae Krawczyk gifted to the entire U.S. tennis team. “Some people get the (Olympic) tattoos. I don’t know if I’m committed to a tattoo yet. So I was like, I’ll do the necklace.”
Last year, Gauff became at age 19 the youngest U.S. singles player to win a major since the first of Serena Williams’ 23 titles at the 1999 U.S. Open.
This year, she can become the first singles player to repeat as U.S. Open champion since Williams in 2014.
There’s a long way still to go, starting with a second-round match Wednesday against 99th-ranked, 37-year-old German Tatjana Maria. Gauff, the third seed, could play No. 27 Elina Svitolina in the third round.
Gauff didn’t get past the round of 16 in her last four tournaments, including back-to-back losses going into the U.S. Open.
“The last few weeks have been a little bit tough, but I know if I play here, I can play great tennis, and today I think was the best tennis I played in a while,” she said Monday.
Last year, she went into the Open having won 11 of 12 matches, including two tournament titles.
“The main focus was trying to be as ready as possible for here, which I feel like it was a blessing in disguise I lost so early (in a lead-in tournament), because I was able to actually train, which I hadn’t been able to,” she said Friday. “I do my best results when I come off a training block.”
Also Monday, No. 9 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece retired from her first-round match after losing the first set 6-2 to China’s Wang Yafan.
Sakkari had her right shoulder and neck worked on during a first-set medical timeout.
The U.S. Open continues Monday night with 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic playing his first match since winning his first Olympic gold medal.