Key events
… just as Gauff’s shoulders visibly drop as Noskova wins her third game on the spin for 3-3. “There are 50,000 things going on in Gauff’s head,” says the always excellent Laura Robson. “She’s thinking about all the technical aspects. Even her backhand is suspect. It seems there’s no confidence in any area of her game apart from her movement, which she can always rely on.” I agree – she’s playing in her head, not her body, which is not surprising given she’s trying to remodel her serve mid-tournament. But it’s hard to watch. But Gauff does, at least, hold for 4-3.
Noskova has won four games on the spin and is serving for the first set. But the 20-year-old – nine years younger than her seasoned compatriot – blinks with three double faults. So they’re going to a tie-break. Muchova – of which there’s so much to like about her game, with her mix of spins and slice – leads 4-2 at the change of ends …
Frech holds for the first time to reduce her arrears to 3-1. On the Sky commentary, Martina Navratilova is asked about Gauff looking more comfortable today, and whether she preferred playing during the day vs at night during her US Open career. She says she never liked the night matches, because the floodlights weren’t so good and it affected her volleying, as she thinks it did for Bjorn Borg. And suddenly Gauff throws in a few errors, including a first double fault, and she hands the break back to Frech. So disappointing for the American after her assured start. She leads 3-2 but they’re back on serve.
Noskova has got the break back against Muchova and is serving at 5-4 down. I’m not too sure how she got there; my computer isn’t really playing ball and is only letting me watch two matches at once. So I’m dipping between that and Musetti v Cobolli. But Muchova did serve for the first set at 5-3.
Gauff, looking more relaxed than she did the other night against Vekic, skips from 0-15 to 0-30 to 0-40 on Frech’s serve. Three early break points. And she then drags Frech to one corner and then the other, before dispatching the forehand winner. That’ll shake off any nerves. Gauff’s got the break and leads 2-0.
Musetti has pressed the accelerator on Louis Armstrong. From 2-2, he now leads 5-2, and then flashes a forehand pass on his way to set point on Cobolli’s serve. Cobolli cooly finds a way to hold. But Musetti soon has three set points on his own serve, and he serves out the 6-3 set to love. He’s the first player with a set to his name on day seven.
Gauff, the 2023 champion, could also be helped today by the fact that Frech, the Polish 28th seed, doesn’t have any stand-out weapons. Even if Gauff’s serve is still misfiring, she should be able to swing freely in her return games. That said, Frech settles the second point of the match, a 28-shot rally, with a piercing winner. Gauff is already stumbling at 0-30 on serve. But Gauff, ever the competitor, even when her game isn’t totally clicking, hauls herself up and gets to 40-30. Make that game.
Gauff was in tears during and after her second-round win over Donna Vekic, such were her struggles on serve. Since winning the French Open in June she’s been plagued by serving problems and resorted to emergency action just before this tournament, splitting with her coach Matt Daly and hiring the biomechanist Gavin MacMillan, who previously helped Aryna Sabalenka overcome her service yips. But trying to remodel her serve under the public scrutiny of nearly 24,000 home fans on Arthur Ashe, has, understandably, been incredibly stressful for the 21-year-old. Perhaps playing in the day session today, rather than in the primetime night slot, will take off a little pressure. And Gauff gets a huge cheer of support as she arrives on court, even though the stands are nowhere near full.
Musetti and Cobolli are still going on serve at 2-2. And despite another double fault, Noskova gets herself on the board with a hold to 30, finishing things off with a forehand winner. She trails 3-1. Coco Gauff, meanwhile, is about to step on to Arthur Ashe, so we’ll be focusing on that match once it gets going.
And if you want to catch up on yesterday’s play, here are our reports:
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Cobolli, who reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals last month at his breakthrough grand slam, withstands the pressure from his higher-ranked opponent and holds. It’s 1-1. Muchova, who’s made the last four in New York for the past two years, breaks when Noskova double faults and then makes a hash of her smash. It’s 2-0.
It’s 11.21am in New York, the sun is shining and already under way are two internal conflicts, between the Italian friends Musetti and Cobolli and the Czech mates Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova. Musetti has taken the opening game on serve and is pushing for a break on Cobolli’s serve, while it’s a similar story for Muchova, who leads 1-0 and has just had a break point.
Preamble
Hello! And welcome to our coverage of the US Open day seven.
Such has been the dominance of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz over the past two years, it’s almost possible to have sudden amnesia for all that the Big Three managed to achieve before the Big Two came along. Having carved up the past seven grand slam titles between them, they’re now seemingly hurtling towards a third consecutive major final against each other, yet to drop a set – and after Alcaraz’s latest breeze yesterday, it’s now Sinner’s turn to remind everyone that there are two kings of New York, as the defending champion takes on Canada’s Denis Shapovalov for a place in the last 16.
Sinner is second on Arthur Ashe in the day session, after Coco Gauff puts her shaky serve through another round of intense scrutiny, this time against Poland’s Magdalena Frech. On Louis Armstrong it’s an all-Italian affair between Lorenzo Musetti and Flavio Cobolli, before what could be another cracker, as Naomi Osaka and her countless crystals take on Daria Kasatkina. Elsewhere we’ve got Alex de Minaur, Andrey Rublev, the whitewashed Wimbledon finalist Amanda Anisimova, plus Venus Williams, 96, in the women’s doubles.
Play gets going: straight away. Don’t go anywhere!
