US Open 2025: Coco Gauff battles nerves, serves up victory against Olympic silver medallist Donna Vekic

The Times of India in New York: Change is the harder path, and Coco Gauff is a testament to that truth. The 21-year-old isn’t just tweaking her serve, one of the most technical shots in tennis; she’s rebuilding it entirely in the middle of her home Grand Slam, the US Open, where she’s a contender for the title.

Every other evening, No.3 seed, New York’s darling, walks out before 24,000 screaming fans and consciously applies the new motion against the match clock, adjusting body rotation and shoulder balance, having traded pace or control. She falters, serves double faults; she breaks and is broken -- but gets back on her feet.The American was distraught in the course of her one-hour 40-minute victory over Olympic silver medallist Donna Vekic. In the tight first set her double-fault count ticked, going up to seven. But Gauff, comforted as much by a full-house as by the presence of her idol Simone Biles in the stands, was able to shake off the nerves in the second set.

She left the court, splashed some cold water on her face, and reset.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Gauff came through 7-6 (5), 6-2 to set up a Saturday meeting with the world No.33 Magdalena Frech of Poland. The American claimed both their previous encounters in straight sets.
In response to her tearful moments on the court, Gauff said, “It is just nerves and pressure, I'm someone who usually thrives on that.

There's been a lot on me this tournament, more than usual, which I expected coming in. What you saw out there was what it was, I was able to reset through it. I felt a lot better going into the match today than my first round. That's an improvement in itself.”“I feel like every pro athlete who's been on the pedestal that I've been on has felt that pressure at some point in their career where they showed it publicly like I did or privately,” Gauff said.

“I just show people what it's like to be human, and that I have bad days. But it's more about how you get up after those bad moments, how you show up. I think today I showed that I can get up after feeling the worst I've ever felt on the court.

”Gauff took comfort from her serving in the second set, where she had a first serve percentage of 77. She won 14 of 20 points on her first serve in the 35-minute set.“This whole tournament will stick for me for the rest of my career knowing that if I can get through two tough matches feeling like how I'm feeling, I can get through pretty much anything,” she said.

“I hope I get to more Grand Slam finals and when those nerves come, I'll recall this feeling, knowing that it probably can't get much worse than this.”In a sport where players have often struggled to break free from the shackles of overbearing parents, the 21-year-old, a no-excuses kind of athlete, has shown no hesitation in taking charge of her career.A couple of years ago, she asked her father Corey, her primary coach at the time, to step back, telling her parents she just needed them to be her parents. She started working with Brad Gilbert in July 2023, initially as a co-coach alongside Pere Riba, and in September last year made the switch to Matt Daly for a year. Her long time mentor Jean-Christophe Faurel continues to work with her alongside the newly appointed biomechanics specialist Gavin MacMillan.Biles applauded Gauff’s sense of direction during a courtside interview. “To see her take ownership of her career off the court is amazing to watch,” she said.