With her work-in-progress serve looking the best it has so far in this trip to Flushing Meadows, No. 3 seed Coco Gauff turned in by far her most solid -- and stress-free -- performance Saturday, defeating No. 28 Magdalena Frech 6-3, 6-1 to reach the second week of the US Open for a fourth consecutive year.
Gauff, 21, will be making her 16th appearance in the round of 16 at a major, breaking a tie for the second-most such appearances by an American woman before her 22nd birthday in the Open era.
"Overall I'm really happy with how I played and to be through to the next round," said Gauff, who got the schedule started with an 11:30 a.m. match time after two difficult wins under the lights at night in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Two days after she double-faulted seven times and dropped four of her six service games in the opening set against Donna Vekic, Gauff had four double-faults total against Frech and won seven of eight service games, while converting 5-of-11 break point opportunities. She hit 76% of her first serves.
"It's been an emotional week ... but I think I needed those tough moments to be able to move forward," Gauff said. "I was putting so much pressure on myself, but I'm really out here just trying to enjoy it and not focus so much on results, but the process, and I think today showed that I was really having fun out there."
In both of her earlier outings, against Ajla Tomljanovic on Tuesday and Vekic on Thursday, Gauff fell behind 2-0. Against Frech, she went up 3-0, before running into a hint of trouble: Gauff slapped a second serve into the net to double-fault and get broken, getting Frech within 3-2, and soon it was 3-all after 26 minutes.
In the next game, Gauff led 40-love, but wound up at 40-30 after shanking a forehand that landed 10 feet out.
Thousands of fans started yelling encouragement and clapping to try to help Gauff. She heard, looked around and clutched a ball for her next serve, vigorously shaking it. Gauff stepped to the baseline and delivered a 105 mph first serve that drew an errant return. Upon watching the ball land out, she leaned forward, clenched her left fist and screamed "Come on!"
That began a set-closing three-game run and Gauff was on her way. Her serve has become a major issue, which is why she brought aboard a biomechanics expert, Gavin MacMillan, who helped Aryna Sabalenka settle her serving yips and rise to No. 1 in the WTA rankings with three major championships, including in New York a year ago.
Gauff will face the winner of Naomi Osaka vs. Daria Kasatkina in the fourth round. She is 3-2 in her WTA career against Osaka (1-1 in majors) and 0-3 vs. Kasatkina, though they have never played in a Slam.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
