No. 6 seed Coco Gauff held off Caroline Wozniacki in three sets (6-3, 3-6, 6-1) Sunday at Arthur Ashe Stadium to reach the 2023 U.S. Open quarterfinals. Here’s what you need to know:
- After splitting the first two sets, Wozniacki went up a break to open the third. Gauff responded with a break of her own and won six straight games to close out the match.
- The 19-year-old American star advances to her second consecutive U.S. Open quarterfinal where she’ll face either No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek or No. 20 Jelena Ostapenko.
- Wozniacki, a two-time U.S. Open finalist, was making her first Grand Slam appearance since retiring in 2020.
COCO GAUFF IS FEELING IT! pic.twitter.com/ZkeCDJ8VZf
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 3, 2023
Backstory
On Monday, Gauff held on for a tense first-round win over Laura Siegemund and roared back to beat No. 32 Elise Mertens in her third-round match Friday, winning the final 10 games after dropping the first set. She entered this year’s U.S. Open fresh off her first WTA 1000 title at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati where she defeated Swiatek in three sets for the first time in her career.
With Sunday’s win, Gauff advanced to her fifth career Grand Slam quarterfinal. She’s seeking her first-ever U.S. Open semifinal appearance.
Wozniacki returned to competitive tennis this summer at the National Bank Open in Montreal following her retirement after the 2020 Australian Open and received a wild card into the 2023 U.S. Open main draw. The 33-year-old Dane took down Tatiana Prozorova, No. 11 Petra Kvitova and Jennifer Brady in Queens to reach the round of 16. She reached the third round in her last U.S. Open appearance in 2019.
What they’re saying
“Caroline, I mean, she’s back. It’s like she never left,” Gauff said in her on-court post-match interview. “The level that she played today is really amazing. She’s been an inspiration for me growing up. It’s a little bit weird because I grew up watching Caroline … So to be out here on the court with her today was an honor.”
Required reading
(Photo: Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)
