Tennis: Defending champion Gauff races past Maria into the third round of the US Open

By Amy Tennery

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Defending champion Coco Gauff brought her nothing-to-lose mentality into the second round of the U.S. Open as she overcame early errors to beat unseeded German Tatjana Maria 6-4, 6-0 on Wednesday.

The American, who beat Maria in Auckland last year, came back with a bang after an error-filled first set, swept through the second and closed the affair with a sublime backhand winner.

In the next round she will play against 2019 semi-finalist Elina Switolina from Ukraine.

“I really have nothing to lose,” said Gauff, who thanked her team for helping her stay relaxed under the pressure of the final major of the year.

“I think ultimately we just look at it like training. We have fun before and after the games.”

Gauff was in top form when she broke Maria in the opening game, but gave her opponent a break point in the next game with a handful of clumsy errors.

The third-seeded player hardly had the lead she had hoped for in New York, having suffered early exits in Toronto and Cincinnati and looking visibly frustrated at times as she made 20 unforced errors and seven double faults in the first set.

She turned the tables when she released her opponent from the baseline in the seventh game and fought back from 15-40 in the tenth.

Due to a technical error, the word “stop” was heard over the Arthur Ashe Stadium loudspeaker, forcing the players to replay the set point. Gauff, however, remained calm and put on a poker face as she walked back to her bench.

Maria dropped her serve with a double fault in the first game of the second set and Gauff forced the German into an error to make it 3-0, with some adjustments during the match paying off.

She came to the net more often and surprised Maria while improving virtually every aspect of her game and winning the match to thunderous applause from the home crowd.

(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Peter Rutherford)