Coco Gauff did everything she could. After losing the first set and remaining 4-2 in the second against Anastasija Sevastova, the 16-year-old reacted to force a decision maker in her first round match at the 2020 US Open. She avoided three match points in her last match at Louis Armstrong Stadium .
For moments, it felt like many of Gauff’s previous main games when she found herself on the ground but came back with hard-fought points and emphatic shouts of “let’s go!”
But something seemed – and sounded – different on Monday. Gauff, currently number 51 in the world, didn’t have thousands of adoring fans in the crowd chanting her name and wishing her a victory. Most of the game was played in silence, interrupted only by the sound of planes flying overhead and the screeching of the nearby train 7. The absence of the crowd was more evident at every point and with every tiring shrug. For Gauff, there was only a handful of onlookers, all wearing masks, and doubts that seemed to creep in.
And those doubts that he could not silence.
When she hit the ball into the net to finish the match after just over two hours of play, she raised her hands in frustration and looked stunned as she walked off the pitch. He grabbed the racket bag and headed for the exit as fast as he could. Instead of staging another run of Cinderella, Gauff released his first Grand Slam exit since the start of the WTA Tour last year. She advanced to round four at Wimbledon in 2019 and the Australian Open last January, as well as reaching the round of 32 in New York last year.
“I think an American audience would have raised Coco and helped her win that game,” said Chris Evert, 18-time senior champion and ESPN analyst, during the post-game broadcast. “She would have won the game if she had played in front of 22,000 people cheering for her. That said, Anastasija played the game of her life.
“It just defused a lot of the power that Coco had. The atmosphere was flat in the stands, but you could still feel the electricity and tension on the pitch and you still knew these players were playing for a Grand Slam title.”
Both players knew what was at stake, even with the strange environment. But Gauff apparently didn’t have the extra focus he often does, committing 13 double fouls and 41 unforced errors in the match. Sevastova, seed number 31, capitalized on many of Gauff’s mistakes.
During the 2019 US Open, Gauff opened the game at Louis Armstrong Stadium against Anastasia Potapova. Just like Monday, she lost the first set 6-3 but returned in the second. The crowd of 14,000 fans – many of whom fell in love with the young American thanks to her run at the All-England Club – screamed in ovation and stood up at the most crucial moments. Gauff seemed to thrive in the environment and loved the pressure of playing on such a large stage. He won the third set, 6-4.
Playing on the same court during his second round match against Timea Babos, he again needed three sets to advance. The crowd was deafening in the third set with “Come on, Coco!” she sings during format changes and got even stronger when she punched the ticket for round three to face defending champion Naomi Osaka. “This is just the beginning, I promise,” he said in his post-match interview, with the poise and confidence of a seasoned veteran.
There will be no “Cocomania” this year in Queens.
“I don’t think so,” Gauff said after the game, when asked if fans could help her. “I think I compete just as hard with the fans or not. I could have played better today.”
Gauff has had some experience playing in front of empty fields in the past few weeks since the WTA Tour resumed after a six-month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic, first at the Top Seed Open and then at the Western & Southern Open. She made it to the semi-finals in Kentucky but lost in the first round last week. However, he hadn’t played in a stadium the size of Armstrong, and that might have been too big an obstacle to overcome.
Will the other star players falter without the support of those in the stands? Will the lesser known or younger players, more used to playing on outdoor courts with a limited and often distracted audience, feel more comfortable? Time will tell soon.
Gauff will now focus on the doubles with partner Caty McNally and attempt to save his trip to New York. The pair, known collectively as McCoco, advanced to the quarter-finals in Melbourne in January and won two titles together. Gauff has high hopes for their collaboration before shifting his focus to the upcoming French Open.
“I mean, I’m still double here, so I hope I’m here until the end,” he said. “This is the goal. Then let’s go to Europe.”
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