Staring down a break point in the fifth game of the first set of her Round 2 match against Elena Gabriela Ruse in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday, Coco Gauff stepped to the line and hammered down an unreturnable serve that looked ticketed for the Romanian's left hip. Ruse barely had enough time to stick her racquet out to protect herself, and the ball ricocheted off the top of its frame.
The serve helped Gauff win both that game, and eventually, the match, and it was a fleeting moment that only became more impressive in hindsight: The 128 mph serve was the second-fastest ever recorded in a women's singles match at the US Open, behind only the record of 129 mph held jointly by Venus Williams and Alycia Parks, who hit the speed last year.
It was a strike that surprised even Gauff herself. (And judging by a candid moment caught by broadcast cameras—her parents, too.)
"I'm not going for the fastest serve, to be honest. Sometimes I say, 'Go hard, [into the] body,'" she told reporters after the 6-2, 7-6(4) victory.
"I did see the serve clock afterwards. I did see it said 128. I looked at it and I was like, 'Whoa.' I don't know how that happened. It didn't feel like I hit it that hard. Sometimes, I feel like when you try to hit the serve hard, it still goes fast, but that was not supposed to be that hard.
"I looked at her after. I hit a couple good serves that game in the 120s. She was laughing at her box. I was like, 'I don't know what's going on either.'"
In Round 3, Gauff faces Madison Keys in a match between two players who know how to bring the heat on serve. Keys topped out at 118 mph herself in a second-round win over Italy's Camila Giorgi.
