WHAT HAPPENED: Coco Gauff’s serve—namely, her struggles with it—was one of the top storylines heading into this year’s US Open. The 2023 Flushing winner entered the fortnight as the top-ranked American and the reigning Roland Garros champion, but lately her serve had deserted her, double faults accumulating like tourists in Times Square. To remedy, she hired serve doctor Gavin McMillan, the architect of top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka’s offering, and is in the midst of a wholesale retooling of what many consider the most important shot in the game.
Tuesday night in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Gauff and her serve passed their first test, but it wasn’t easy. The No. 3 seed rebounded from a slow start and a second-set wobble to outlast a fearless Ajla Tomljanovic, 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5, in the final match of the women’s first round. The encounter lasted two hours, 57 minutes, with Gauff closing it out with a clutch service hold.
“It was a tough match,” Gauff said after the victory. “I had chances for it to be straight sets, but Ajla was tough. I felt like she was getting so many balls back and I was trying to push her back and she was standing on top of the baseline. It wasn’t the best, but I’m happy to get through to the next round.”
After a slow start—she trailed 2-0 and 3-1 in the opening set—Gauff appeared to be on her way to a routine victory, up 6-4, 4-2. But Tomljanovic was unbowed, slugging her way back into the match, denying Gauff when she was two points from victory at 6-5, and blitzing the American in the second-set tiebreak, 7-2, to force a decider.
As she did in the second set, Gauff took the early advantage in the third, pulling ahead 3-1. But she couldn’t convert break opportunities in each of Tomljanovic’s next two service games, extending the drama, and was broken serving for the match at 5-4, a pair of double faults gifting Tomljanovic an early advantage in the game.
Gauff, though, showed why she’s a two-time Grand Slam champion, digging deep to break for a 6-5 lead and, poetically, holding her serve—and her nerve—to secure the hard-fought win.
“I had so many chances, so eventually they’re going to come,” Gauff said. “I had chances to close it out in two, I had chances to go up double break so many times, so I was like, eventually one of these are going to go my way and it did in that [final] game.”
The stats don’t reflect the quality of the match, which featured an assortment of extended rallies played at full throttle. In all, Gauff baited Tomljanovic into 56 unforced errors, and most tellingly, yielded just 12 winners to her big-hitting opponent. For her part, Gauff produced 29 winners—including a running backhand down the line on match point—and 59 errors on the evening.
Of course, all eyes were on the serve stat line. And while Gauff didn’t excel there, her serve was solid enough to allow her thumping ground game and peerless court coverage to shine. She finished the match with four aces and 10 double faults—a far cry from the 23 she offered in her second-round victory over Danielle Collins in Montreal or the 19 she posted in her fourth-round loss to Emma Navarro in last year’s US Open—and won 66% of the points on her first serve and a respectable 44% on her second serve.
On court after the match, Gauff addressed what it’s been like to overhaul her serve on the eve of one of the biggest tournaments of the year.
“Really tough,” she said. “Honestly, mentally exhausting, but I’m trying. It wasn’t the best today, but at 30-all [in the final game], it came in when it mattered. It’s improved from last week in Cincy, and I’m just trying to improve with each match.”
WHAT IT MEANS: In what has been a patchy stretch for an elite player, this was a solid, gutsy victory for Gauff. The 21-year-old from Florida has enjoyed an outstanding season by any measure—a second Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, finals appearances in Madrid and Rome—but was just 4-4 since her victory in Paris.
Moreover, Tomljanovic was a difficult first-round opponent who played wonderfully Tuesday evening. The 32-year-old climbed to No. 32 in the world in early 2023 and has fond memories of Arthur Ashe Stadium, where three years ago she defeated Serena Williams in Williams’ final professional match, en route to the quarterfinals. Tomljanovic also boasts two Wimbledon quarterfinal appearances and has shown over the course of her career that she can slug with anyone on tour.
Next up for Gauff is Donna Vekic, the former world No. 17 who reached the semifinals at Wimbledon in 2024 and the quarterfinals at the US Open in 2019. Vekic outlasted world No. 40 Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in a tough three-setter in the opening round.
MATCH POINT: With the victory, Gauff improved to 36-12 on the year and kept alive her chance to add a second Grand Slam title in 2025. The last American woman to win two majors in a season was Serena Williams in 2015, and the last woman to win the French Open and US Open in the same year was Iga Swiatek in 2022.
