Coco Gauff explains what she found ‘hard’ about the conditions in her US Open third round win over Magdalena Frech

Coco Gauff has made it safely through to the second week of the US Open, but she did not enjoy everything about her straight sets win over Magdalena Frech.

Gauff was very emotional after her last match, as her public struggles with her serve were on show to see.

The world number three received a lot of support after her vulnerable reaction, with Andy Roddick backing Gauff to become a dominant server in the future.

There were some significant improvements in Gauff’s serve against Frech, as she hit just four double faults, but she did struggle with something during their match.

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Coco Gauff admits she found it hard to see the ball against Magdalena Frech

Gauff played her first two matches in the night session on Arthur Ashe Stadium, which can often be very lively in terms of the crowd atmosphere.

However, that was not the case in her third round match, with Gauff taking to the Arthur Ashe Stadium at 11:30am.

While this appeared to favour her in terms of the result, with Gauff beating Frech 6-3 6-1, she admitted in her post-match speech that she found it difficult to see the ball sometimes with the sunlight on different areas of the court.

“Yeah, well today I played well,” said Gauff. “It was tough playing two night matches and then having to play with the shade on that side, it was kind of hard to see the ball. But overall, happy with how I played and to be through to the next round.”

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Gauff was then asked about how she was able to put the emotions of her last match behind her to focus on her third round, to which she suggested that those moments were necessary to help her get to the mindset she was in against Frech.

“Yeah, it’s been an emotional week, but I needed those tough moments to be able to move forward and I put so much pressure on myself, but I’m really out here just trying to enjoy it and, you know, not focus so much on the results but the process and I think today showed that I was really happy to come out here,” explained the 2023 US Open champion.

Although the day session is not as lively in terms of crowd support, there were still many people on Arthur Ashe Stadium really getting behind Gauff.

Gauff went on to thank those people, and hoped that she could repay them in the form of her result.

“Yeah, the support means a lot,” said Gauff. “Truly, I can’t put into words, like, how privileged, I feel so on the court and have the support of all of you guys and also on the social media and things like that.

“So I really appreciate every person, even the staff here, like, just having someone say that we’re rooting for you, like, every five steps I walk into this place, means a lot to me, and I just hope that I repay the feeling for those around me as well.”

Coco Gauff achieves record at the US Open for the first time in 14 years

Although she has been on the WTA Tour for six years already and is a two-time Grand Slam champion, Gauff is still only 21 years old.

Gauff’s win over Frech was her 20th in singles at the US Open, which is somewhat of a historic feat.

The last WTA player to win 20 matches at the US Open at a younger age was former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, who achieved that feat in 2011.

Gauff will look to continue these positive feelings and break more records ahead of her fourth round match.

This is where she will play the winner of the match between two-time US Open champion Naomi Osaka and former top 10 player Daria Kasatkina.

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