NEW YORK—Coco Gauff was not aware that she‘d lost five consecutive matches against opponents ranked in the top 50. She was not sure exactly how many points in a row she’d dropped—11, it turns out—to give away the first set against Elina Svitolina in the U.S. Open’s third round on Friday.
Here, then, is what was entirely clear to Gauff at that moment: “I needed a reset.” So before the second set, the 20-year-old from Florida went to the bathroom, changed part of her outfit and splashed water on her face. Then Gauff went back on court and extended the defense of her first Grand Slam title by turning things around to beat the 27th-seeded Svitolina 3–6, 6–3, 6–3.
