Coco Gauff Advances at US Open Amid American Upsets

Coco Gauff steadied a rattled American campaign at the US Open, grinding her way into the fourth round on a day when some of the home crowd’s biggest hopes crashed out in brutal fashion.

Gauff survives tricky Bucsa test

This was not the electric, free-swinging Gauff who stormed to the title here in 2023. Under the afternoon sun, facing the awkward rhythm and changes of pace from world No 40 Cristina Bucsa, she had to work. Hard.

She still found a way.

The 22-year-old moved into the last 16 with a 6-3 6-4 win that was more about resilience than sparkle. Bucsa dragged her into long, uneven rallies, slowing the ball down one point and rushing the next, and for long stretches Gauff looked uncomfortable.

When she fell behind an early break, the match threatened to drift. Instead, she reset, shortened her swings and hit through the court with more conviction. The errors tightened, the serve steadied, and the defending champion wrestled back control.

“She’s a tricky player and sometimes she can pick it up and slow it down, so it was tough for me to get a rhythm,” Gauff said. “Once I was down that break I just told myself I need to accelerate through my shots… I’m just happy with how I fought through even when I wasn’t playing my best.”

It was enough. Not spectacular, but enough.

Gauff now awaits the winner of an all-teen clash between compatriot Iva Jovic and Alexandra Eala of the Philippines for a place in the quarter-finals. The draw is opening in front of her; the expectation is growing with it.

Fritz lets two-set lead slip as Cerundolo roars back

On the men’s side, the story was far less forgiving.

Taylor Fritz, the ninth seed and one of the standard-bearers of the American resurgence, looked to be cruising. Two sets up on Federico Cerundolo, no sets dropped all week, the 28-year-old seemed ready to join Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Alex Michelson in the last 16.

Then the match turned ugly.

Cerundolo, who stunned the field at Queen’s Club earlier in the summer, dug in. The quality dipped, the errors mounted on both sides, but the Argentine refused to go away. He clawed back a set. Then another. Fritz’s authority evaporated with each loose forehand and hesitant second serve.

By the fifth, the momentum was gone. Fritz never recovered it.

Cerundolo completed a remarkable 3-6 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 comeback, sending Fritz out and deepening a long-running American frustration: the host nation has not produced a men’s singles champion here since Andy Roddick beat Juan Carlos Ferrero in 2003.

That drought now hangs over Tommy Paul, the 20th seed, as he prepares for a heavyweight test against defending champion Carlos Alcaraz. For Paul, there is no mystery about the scale of the challenge.

“I think I played Carlos more than anybody on tour, for me, which is kind of crazy,” he said. “We’ve had some good matches. But, I mean, he’s the test, him and [Jannik] Sinner. They have been playing great, and I guess Carlos we haven’t really seen too much, but he’s obviously doing pretty well coming right back to competition.”

Elsewhere in the draw, Belgian 28th seed Alexander Blockx produced one of the shocks of the day, dismantling Italian fifth seed Flavio Cobolli 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 6-0 6-3. Blockx now faces Cerundolo in a fourth-round meeting few would have predicted when the tournament began.

Keys’ nightmare collapse as Zheng surges back

If Fritz’s defeat stung, Madison Keys’ loss cut even deeper.

The 2017 runner-up led 5-0 in the deciding set against Qinwen Zheng and still walked off Arthur Ashe Stadium beaten 1-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-5. It was a collapse that played out in slow motion, every missed opportunity tightening the tension.

Keys had flown through the first set, dictating with her forehand and rushing Zheng off the baseline. The Chinese star, though, refused to fold. She hung on, forced a second-set tiebreak and grabbed it. The match flipped.

Still, at 5-0 up in the third, Keys stood on the brink of victory. Then the fear crept in.

“I feel like I obviously got off to a really good lead, and then I just got really scared, like I couldn’t swing,” the 31-year-old admitted. “I don’t know. Tennis just feels really hard right now, so I feel like that kind of took over.”

Zheng seized on every sign of doubt, ripping returns, holding her nerve and reeling off seven of the last eight games. She will now face Iga Swiatek in a blockbuster fourth-round clash.

For Keys, the loss will linger.

Anisimova misfires, Andreeva advances, Swiatek digs in

The American setbacks kept coming.

Last year’s beaten finalist Amanda Anisimova never found her range, spraying 46 unforced errors in a 6-2 7-5 defeat to Austria’s Anastasia Potapova. The raw power was there; the control was not. Potapova stayed compact, absorbed the pace and watched the mistakes pile up on the other side of the net.

Mirra Andreeva, fresh from her French Open triumph, continued her own rise with a composed 6-2 7-6 (7-5) win over Czech player Nikola Bartunkova. The Russian fifth seed moved into the fourth round in New York for the first time and will now meet Potapova in a quietly intriguing showdown of contrasting styles: Andreeva’s all-court craft against Potapova’s flat aggression.

At the top of the women’s game, Iga Swiatek found herself dragged into the trenches and refused to leave.

The six-time Grand Slam champion had to fight for every inch in a bruising 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-3) win over Czech 25th seed Marie Bouzkova. The rallies stretched, the physicality ramped up, and Swiatek had to lean on her legs and her nerve as much as her forehand.

“It got pretty physical, many long rallies,” the 25-year-old said. “It wasn’t easy.”

She made it through, though, and now stands opposite Zheng, who arrives with momentum and a statement win over Keys. That fourth-round clash promises a test not just of Swiatek’s game, but of her ability to absorb pressure from a fearless challenger.

Williams sisters avoid fine after doubles exit

Away from the singles drama, Serena and Venus Williams made a brief, poignant return to Flushing Meadows.

Playing their first match here in four years, the sisters lost a tight three-set doubles encounter to Maya Joint and Chan Hao-ching. They chose not to speak to the media afterwards, a decision that usually brings a fine under tournament rules.

This time, it did not. It is understood the Williams sisters will not be punished.

On a day when American hopes took heavy hits across the draws, Gauff’s gritty win and the sight of Serena and Venus back on court offered the crowd something to hold on to. The question now is whether any of the remaining home contenders can turn that emotion into a run deep into the second week.