Coco Gauff reaches US Open round of 16 with stress-free win - ESPN

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.

After two difficult wins under the lights at night in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Gauff got the schedule started with an 11:30 a.m. match. — with shade covering nearly half of the court on a cloudless morning.

Coco Gauff's serving has been getting better as the tournament has gone on. Her double faults have come down in each match, and she has dropped serve only once in her last 12 service games dating back to the second set of her second-round match against Donna Vekic.

«It was kind of hard to see the ball,» Gauff said, «but overall, I'm happy with the way I played.»

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. She put in 76% of her first serves while averaging 98 mph, with a high of 113 mph.

«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