Mumbai: On match point, Coco Gauff tried something different. The 22-year-old American is a defensive baseliner who clings to the back of the court to build points. Now, when she was a point away from a spot in the last eight of a Grand Slam, she decided to serve-and-volley for the first time in the match.
“I was thinking when I hit the serve that I’m either going to love this or regret this,” she said in the post-match press conference. “I don’t know if it shows how confident I am, or just the ideas in my head that pop up on match point.”
It was probably one of those drastic ideas that comes up only when a player is hitting the ball sweetly, moving around the court with ease, pulling off moves she tends not to use, and is playing with a great deal of confidence. It all showed on Monday night at the Arthur Ashe Stadium when fourth seed Gauff beat budding star and compatriot Iva Jovic 6-1, 6-4 to reach the quarter-final of the US Open.
The straight-set result came in a match that lasted an hour and 33 minutes, but it was a statement win for the 2023 champion. And this for a player who, in the fourth round in New York last year, told her player box that “nothing’s working” as she slumped to a straight sets defeat against Naomi Osaka.
Gauff is a different player from last year, despite the fact that she had won the French Open in 2025—her second Grand Slam title. Last season, she struggled for consistency on her serve and the forehand had become a clear chink in the armour.
This year, there has been improvement in the performance of her reworked serve, and on Monday, her forehand was a weapon.
“Just trying to have better footwork on that shot has made a difference,” she explained. “It’s just knowing that in practice I’ve been executing it well, and I’ve started to execute it really well in matches. Honestly, I feel like when you have a weakness, and over the years everybody just starts hitting to it, you have no choice but getting better. So, I welcome it. I feel like every match I’m hitting more forehands than backhands, so it’s getting better.”
Along with her forehand though, her overall performances have also been on the upswing. The win against Jovic took her win streak to 10 matches, and she has won 20 sets on the trot. The run includes the Cincinnati Masters title, won a week before the US Open.
Beating Jovic also means that she has reached a Grand Slam quarter-final for the 12th time. Only Serena Williams (15) and Maria Sharapova (13) did better before turning 23, since 2000.
That’s an enviable statistic. But the one that would matter more for Gauff is the possibility that she could become world No.1 if she wins the US Open—provided Elena Rybakina, now in the quarters, does not reach the semis.
“A quarter-final for me, I feel like I’m at the point where I’m used to being in this position,” she said. “I’m constantly putting myself in quarter-finals, so the moment doesn’t seem as big anymore.”
Like most players though, she tends to take it one match at a time. And the match against Jovic started with Gauff losing serve in the very first game.
Gauff though is probably one of the most dangerous players on tour when on the backfoot. In fact, in both the Grand Slam titles she won—2023 US Open and 2025 Roland Garros—she had lost the first set in the final.
She used that early setback to fuel a solid recovery that saw her win the next six games to seal the first set. The second saw a bit more fight from the tenacious Jovic, who would not go away despite Gauff getting the first break of the set.
The world No.4 though proved her class and experience in breaking her opponent’s serve at love to go up 5-4, and then served out the match to complete a confident performance.
And Gauff herself knows she is in good form.
“Just my nervous system and knowing that when the pressure is there, I’m able to rely on a lot of different things to win points in different ways. That gives me confidence, knowing that I have, probably up to this point, a Plan D,” she said.
“There’s comfort in knowing that if Plan A isn’t working, then there’s B, C, D. And I think that’s something that makes me comfortable. The biggest difference is that I’ve been trying to play with no regrets. I’ve had a lot more fun and success playing like this.”
Up next for Gauff is another teenager—19-year-old Mirra Andreeva who won the 2026 French Open.
Gauff, though, has a 5-0 record against the Russian. It’s just another statistic to top up the confidence the American is brimming with.
