Coco Gauff struggled mentally on the court during her U.S. Open second-round win over Donna Vekić on Thursday night.
Gauff's been struggling with her serving this year, as she currently leads the WTA in double faults. She had 320 heading into this week's U.S. Open, and in her match on Thursday, the American added eight more to that total.
After one double fault lost her a service game to bring the first set score to 4-4, Gauff was seen crying on the sidelines as she was clearly distraught about her serving. She was seen shaking on the bench later in the first set.
Despite these struggles, the 21-year-old ended up winning the match in two sets. During her post-match interview, Gauff let her emotions flow out as she cried before talking to the audience. As the tears flowed, the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd cheered her own for support.
"You guys really, really helped me a lot," Gauff said. "I'm doing this for myself, but I'm also doing it for you. No matter how tough it gets inside, you can do it."
.@CocoGauff was emotional after winning her second round match at the US Open 🥹 pic.twitter.com/py1L7eXKm0
— ESPN (@espn) August 29, 2025
Gauff is working on improving her serve, especially after she parted ways with her previous coach Matt Daly last week and hired on Gavin MacMillan, who has previously worked with world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on her serve.
The No. 3 player will face No. 28 Magdalena Fręch on Saturday in the third round, where she will most definitely get this resounding support from the American crowd once again.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Coco Gauff Thanked U.S. Open Crowd After Emotional Second-Round Match.