It was a duel of generations to which the spectators of the Arthur Ashe central court were entitled this Sunday evening, between a former world number 1, Caroline Wozniacki (33 years old), and her youngest, the nugget Coco Gauff (19 years old). This turned to the advantage of the youngest, victorious in three sets (6-3, 3-6, 6-1) and just 2 hours of play. It indeed took Gauff a good battle to get rid of her eldest, the American lacking in regularity but always remaining diligent in getting back into the game at pivotal moments.
Despite a start to the game against her – broken from the start, trailing 2-0 – Coco Gauff was able to keep up the pace better than her eldest in the first set, an observation which seemed all in all logical when we know that Wozniacki is not returned to competition only in August, after a three-year retirement, during which she became a mother.
However, the trend was clearly reversed during the second set, Coco Gauff starting to thwart, multiplying the unforced errors (22) and being constantly under pressure (6 break points against her). Wozniacki took advantage of this lull to hurt on serve and return to a set everywhere. But after Gauff sped up in the third set, the games followed and the American ended her flawed but serious performance with a final service winner, punctuated by a cry of rage once the match was won.
Gauff joined, and for the second consecutive year, the quarter-finals at the US Open (she had been eliminated at this stage by Caroline Garcia last year). After having managed an impressive hard month of August, materialized by two titles in Washington and Cincinnati, the young American nugget wants to aim even higher.
She will face the winner of the match between Iga Swiatek and Jelena Ostapenko, scheduled for 3 o’clock in the night from Sunday to Monday. A big piece to come, during which she will still have to raise her level.
