NEW YORK (AP) — Coco Gauff put aside a rough start and grabbed the last 10 games for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory over No. 32 seed Elise Mertens in the U.S. Open's third round Friday night.
Gauff, a 19-year-old from Florida, heard plenty of loud support from the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd as she turned things around and won for the 14th time in her past 15 matches.
That stretch includes the two biggest titles of Gauff's career and made the sixth-seeded American one of the players considered a real contender at Flushing Meadows, where she got to the quarterfinals last year.
To return to that round, Gauff will need to beat Caroline Wozniacki, a 33-year-old who is playing in her third event since coming out of retirement. Wozniacki won the 2018 Australian Open and twice was the runner-up at the U.S. Open before walking away from tennis 3 1/2 years ago to start a family.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
