US Open reigning champion Coco Gauff has been inadvertently humiliated by a bunch of kids.
The American third seed knew she was having a bad day during her fourth-round clash with countrywoman Emma Navarro on Monday (AEST), but she didn’t need a group of youngsters to remind her of that at her lowest ebb.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Kids in US Open crowd ushered away by security.
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Gauff was on the brink of a shock defeat, serving to stay in the match at 3-5 down in the third set, when a group of children came down to the bottom of the grandstand to position themselves for a post-match autograph.
It is customary for security to let that happen when a match is about to finish, but it doesn’t usually happen at the start of a game that the expected loser is serving.
The kids, and security, could have at least backed her in to hold serve.
“Coco’s a little unnerved,” Chris Fowler said in commentary.
“When you’re at the end of a match, the extras will let the kids come down with the giant tennis balls to sign, a signal that they believe this could end soon.”
The premature decision did not go down well with Fowler or his co-commentator, former world No.1 Chris Evert.
“Coco checks it out, just kind of stares them down, and walks off the line here. It’s not cool,” Fowler continued.
Evert added: “The guards should prevent that from happening.”
Gauff gave herself a minute to recompose while the kids were ushered away again from security.
But sadly for her, the kids’ implicit prediction was proved correct just minutes later when she proceeded to have her serve broken and lose the match 6-3 4-6 6-3.
Gauff was unable to overcome a poor performance that included more double faults than winners — 19 to 14.
World No.12 Navarro, who also eliminated Gauff in the fourth round at Wimbledon in July, was far steadier on Sunday.
Gauff, 20, had won 10 matches in a row at Flushing Meadows, including the run to her first grand slam title a year ago.
But this was the latest in a series of early exits, for her high standards, in recent weeks, including bowing out in the third round at the Paris Olympics, then going 1-2 at hard-court tune-up events before arriving in New York.
After each of her past two contests in New York, Gauff headed back out onto the practice courts to work on her serve.
That didn’t help much on Sunday. Eleven of her double-faults came in the final set alone.
She described her serve problems as “more of an emotional, mental thing”.
“Because if I go out on the practice court right now, I would make, like, 30 serves in a row. I’ve done it before,” she said.
I think it’s also just kind of a mental hurdle that I have to get over when it comes. But I definitely want to look at other things, because I don’t want to lose matches like this anymore.”
Aside from those issues, Gauff finished with a total of 60 unforced errors — a whopping 29 on her forehand side, the biggest weakness in her game.
This result follows the surprising third-round loss by defending men’s champion Novak Djokovic on Friday night, meaning the lengthy droughts without anyone winning consecutive titles in New York will continue.
The last woman to win at least two in a row was Serena Williams with three from 2012-14; the last man was Roger Federer with five from 2004-08.
The Wimbledon win over Gauff earned Navarro, the 2021 NCAA singles champion for the University of Virginia, her first appearance in a major quarter-final.
Her second will come on Tuesday in New York against No.26 seed Paula Badosa, a 6-1, 6-2 winner against Wang Yafan.
That will give Navarro another chance to play at Arthur Ashe Stadium in front of a big crowd. She’d never hit a ball in the place until Sunday — and felt rather at ease, anyway.
“I’ve been out on big courts before, where I just felt totally overwhelmed and almost like it’s an out-of-body experience. But I didn’t feel like that today,” Navarro said.
“I felt comfortable from the time I stepped out onto the court,which I was a little bit surprised about. I kind of had prepared myself for the worst, just in terms of feeling overwhelmed and nervous.”
– With AAP
