WHAT HAPPENED: The semifinal round in the main draws of the 2021 US Open just added a couple of more teenagers late Wednesday afternoon. Coco Gauff and Caty McNally, the No. 11 seeds in the women’s doubles draw, continued their near-impeccable march through the tournament in knocking off the top-seeded pair of Su-Wei Hsieh and Elise Mertens, 6-3, 7-6, on Louis Armstrong Stadium to reach the semifinals of the US Open. After two appearances in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open in 2020 and earlier this year, the team dubbed “McCoco” have broken through to reach their first-ever Grand Slam semifinal.
In doing so, Gauff and McNally took out the team that came in as the most recent doubles champion at a major, with Hsieh and Mertens coming off their title at Wimbledon.
“Today was a really tough match. Going into it we knew it was going to be very tricky,” McNally said. “Su-Wei brings a different type of game style than anyone we've seen before. You have to stay on your toes and be ready for pretty much everything, which I think we did a great job.”
Despite the unfamiliarity with Hsieh, Gauff and McNally found their comfort zone from the start, with Gauff holding at love to open the match. The first turning point of the match came in the fourth game—the first on serve for Hsieh—as McNally ripped a backhand service return winner to set up a break point, which she and Gauff converted on the subsequent point. At 4-2, McNally was broken at 15, but she and Gauff broke Hsieh’s serve once more to re-establish their one-break advantage.
Other than throwing her racquet down in disgust midway through the first set after an unforced error, Gauff was composed and, on her serve, perfect. In her six service games, Gauff did not face a break point, holding half of those service games to love.
In the second-set, Gauff and McNally went up a break at both 2-1 and 4-3, however McNally dropped serve in both of her service games after she and Gauff gained those advantages. There were no service hiccups in the tiebreak, however, as Gauff and McNally raced out to a 5-0 lead in the tiebreak before winning it comfortably, 7-1.
“I think today we just competed really well for every point,” Gauff said. “Going into the match, we knew they were going to be a tough team to beat. They're not the No. 1 seeds for no reason. I'm glad we brought our A game today.”
Gauff and McNally will take on the No. 5 seeds, Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani, in the semifinals.
WHAT IT MEANS: It isn’t exactly the leaping chest bump made famous in tennis by the Bryan Brothers, but the leaping shoulder bump that Gauff and McNally performed in celebration after match point is a sight tennis fans will be getting used to seeing for years to come. Like the Bryans, Gauff and McNally made their debut as a team at the US Open as teens, with Bob and Mike playing their first US Open as 17-year-olds in 1995...or, to put it another way, six and nine years before McNally and Gauff were born, respectively.
Though they are the second-lowest seed remaining of the four teams in the women’s semifinals (ahead of No. 14 seeds Samantha Stosur and Shuai Zhang), Gauff and McNally’s form on the court is one more resembling an odds-on favorite. The No. 11 seeds have yet to drop a set in the four matches at the 2021 US Open, and the second-set tiebreak today was the first time Gauff and McNally dropped more than four games in a set during their semifinal run. After their 1995 debut, it took the Bryans eight years until they won their first major (2003 Roland Garros) and a decade until winning their maiden US Open title (2005). Gauff and McNally are two wins away from accelerating that progression in a “major” way.
MATCH POINT: The combined age of Gauff (17) and McNally (19) is just one above Hsieh (35), who came into the US Open looking for her fifth doubles title at a Grand Slam and second alongside Mertens.
