The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 U.S. Open. NEW YORK — Coco Gauff is not messing around. After a scratchy third-round win Saturday, Gauff came to the U.S. Open on Monday night to play.Under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Gauff was the wizened veteran taking on the new American prodigy, Iva Jović, who was 48 hours removed from a magical three-set, three-hour win over her close friend Alex Eala.The match, and their embrace at the end, captivated the tournament.Gauff doesn’t have much time for tennis sentimentality these days. She has spent the past year breaking down and rebuilding the two most important shots in her game with the sole goal of winning a third Grand Slam title, and many more after that.On Monday night, she took another big step in that direction against a player who seemed on the cusp of causing her some trouble. Jović didn’t do much of that early, but then she did, bending but not breaking, hanging under near-relentless pressure from the woman arguably playing the best tennis right now.When it was over, Gauff was into the quarterfinals for the third time in four Grand Slams this year, notching a 6-1, 6-4 win that served as another message to the rest of the field.She also had a message for Jović.“Incredible player and incredible talent,” Gauff said in her on-court interview.“Give it up for Iva … There was one game when I felt like I was running a marathon. First time I was out of breath on court in a long time.”It hadn’t looked like it was going to go that way.Iva Jović ran Coco Gauff close but could not catch her. (Julian Finney / Getty Images)At one point early in the second set, Gauff had won twice as many points as Jović. By the end, she had 65 and Jović had 44. But just two or three of those points, in the middle of the second set, showed why Gauff asked the crowd for praise for her opponent — after she had vanquished her.Jović was getting her teeth back into the match, showcasing her controlled aggressiveness. She could hang with Gauff for long enough to find an opening in a rally, and then she could put the ball right through it.Then, she went to showcase some of her deft touch at the net. Jović half-volleyed two drop shots that most players wouldn’t have bothered chasing after.Gauff caught up with both of them. Of course she did.On one of them, she also somehow then chased down Jović’s attempt to knock her slice into the open court. Jović looked up, saw Gauff was there, and raised the white flag.Gauff knocked the ball into a rectangular expanse of blue, as Jović stood in the doubles alley and doubled over to her knees, trying to catch her breath.Gauff finished the business in a manageable 93 minutes, but Jović pushed her to the end. Gauff was down 0-30 as she tried to serve out the match. She attacked with a backhand. She got Jović to miss a soft, kicking serve.Then she got lucky when her overhead hit the top of the net and bounced through the court to bring up match point.She served-and-volleyed her way across the finish line, hugged Jović and let out a scream.Gauff now has yet to lose a set in four matches. Each of her opponents have pushed her in moments, but overall, it has been a far smoother ride than last year’s maelstrom-like matches.In the first round, Zeynep Sönmez was unplayable for four games early in the second set. Gauff weathered the storm, then surged as Sönmez tired and cooled.In the second round Paula Badosa, a former world No. 2 with a winning record against Gauff, lured her into a hitting contest. Gauff dug in, matched Badosa’s power, and outfoxed her when the opportunities arose.The third round was old-style Gauff, scratchy and inconsistent and grinding her way to victory with her legs, over Cristina Buçsa. Also, there was the matter of her two new best friends: An often lethal first serve to the body that is hitting 125 mph, and a reliable second serve that no longer gives away many free points.Then came Monday night. Gauff lost the first game playing off her back foot, then leaned in and rolled. She was letting out yells and riling herself up when she was way ahead, seemingly knowing that Jović was going to clean up the errors and come for her before long.Come for her she did, breaking Gauff back after going behind in the second set. But Gauff lifted once more, banging the ball across the court and asking Jović questions she ultimately could not answer with her tennis.Now comes Mirra Andreeva, the 19-year-old French Open champion who appears to have found some form and some much-needed calm in New York. Gauff sees Andreeva as similar to her — athletic, able to play offense and defense and beat players in a multitude of ways.“It’s going to come down to who can grit out those points,” she said in a news conferenceAndreeva had similar praise for Gauff.“Coco is a great fighter,” Andreeva said in a news conference, also on Monday, after her fourth-round win “No matter what’s going to happen, the match is going to be tough. And, I think she’s now also improving even more. You know, her serve is better.”Andreeva and Gauff will almost certainly face off under the lights on Arther Ashe Stadium Wednesday, when Andreeva will have to face one of the country’s most popular athletes, playing in her home Slam, with nearly 24,000 rollicking fans backing her.It’s the sort of atmosphere that could trouble the steeliest of opponents. It will likely test every bit of Andreeva’s occasionally fragile psyche.“With the home crowd, of course it’s going to be a tough match,” Andreeva said.Gauff’s tennis probably won’t be easy to handle either