Varvara Gracheva is the first opponent who stands in the way of 2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff's hopes of defending her title this year. But just who is the 24 year-old Frenchwoman?
Gracheva currently holds a WTA ranking of No. 66 and a surprise of a backstory, so here’s what you need to know about who the American will be playing in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday afternoon.
This is Gracheva’s first year playing for a different red-white-and-blue.
Moscow-born Gracheva moved to Cannes, France to train at the Elite Tennis Center (also a long-time training facility of Daniil Medvedev) at 16 years old. After deciding to become a full-time French resident in the midst of her training, Gracheva gained her citizenship in 2023 and began playing tennis under the tricolor soon after. She went on to represent France in its home Olympics this summer.
She told French newspaper L’Equipe that it’s been a transition to move to the country full-time–she loves the food, the history and the architecture, but says she is still adjusting to the French’s unique sense of humor.
Gracheva is now the fourth-highest ranking French women’s player. Though her ranking of No. 66 is well short of the career-high of No. 39 she hit in January, she sits just 10 places behind French No. 2 Clara Burel (Diane Parry sits between them at No. 60).
(Burel, interestingly enough, will also be in action on Ashe on Monday against another ex-US Open winner in Sloane Stephens.)
She’s sneaking up on the tour’s stars
It’s been a solid year for the newly-minted French woman, who has been tallying some impressive wins and scrappy showings against the world’s top players. Most recently, she pushed No. 1 Iga Swiatek to three sets in Cincinnati, a relatively uncommon draw out for the Pole. Gracheva rallied back from a 6-0 first set, and a 4-1 start to the second, to snag a scrappy tiebreak before eventually succumbing.
Earlier in the year, the right-hander went the distance for a blockbuster three-set win at Roland Garros against former semifinalist Maria Sakkari. She took down the Grecian, who currently sits at No. 9 in the world and was a No. 6 seed in Paris, in the first round.
Gracheva, in fact, had quite the homecoming on the clay Slam this year. After taking down Sakkari off the bat, she rolled out to a fourth-round run in her new home Slam, playing in front of a French crowd that excitedly welcomed her into the fold.
In a picture-perfect turn of events she was the last Frenchwoman standing at this year’s Roland Garros. After she earned her fourth-round berth with a win over Irina-Camelia Begu, the crowd on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, Roland Garros' second stadium, jumped into a rendition of “La Marseillaise,” the French national anthem.
Monday’s match will not be her first high-profile Flushing contest
This will not be the Frenchwoman’s first go in Flushing, and she has quietly built an impressive US Open resume for herself over the past few years of competition. Her opening match against Gauff will mark the beginning of her fifth US Open, a tournament where she has twice propelled herself into the third round of competition (2020 and 2021).
In both third-round runs she encountered another of the WTA's top stars in Paula Badosa, and in both efforts, she knocked the Spaniard out in straight sets. Gracheva's win over Badosa came in the 2020 first round, in her Grand Slam main-draw debut, when Gracheva then went on to stun Kristina Mladenovic from a 6-1, 5-1 deficit and multiple match points.
During Gracheva and Badosa's 2021 meeting, the Spaniard was fresh off a quarterfinal run at Roland Garros and was en route to a year-end ranking of No. 8, but still posed no challenge for her underdog opponent.
In most recent Flushing history, Gracheva fell to Taylor Townsend in last year’s first round, 6-4, 6-2.
This year’s clash between Gracheva and Gauff will take place Monday in Ashe following the first-round match between Dominic Thiem and No. 13 seed Ben Shelton.
The two have played each other once before: a convincing Gauff victory on Auckland’s hard courts this past January. The American went on to win that title. Might that be an omen for their second head-to-head matchup?
