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      Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe Set for All-American Quarterfinal

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      Here’s what to know about the singles match between Shelton and Tiafoe, two of the three American men remaining in the U.S. Open.The men’s semifinals at the U.S. Open are guaranteed to include at least one American.That’s because 10th-seeded Frances Tiafoe and unseeded Ben Shelton will play for one of the final four spots when they meet in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. Their match features two of the three American men remaining in the tournament. The other is ninth-seeded Taylor Fritz, who will play second-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia in another quarterfinal on Tuesday. It is the first time since 2005 that three American men have advanced this far in singles at the Open.Tiafoe and Shelton have not played each other as professionals. Tiafoe reached the semifinals at last year’s Open. And while Shelton will be playing in the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the first time, he reached the Australian Open quarterfinals in January, losing to his fellow American Tommy Paul.Here’s what to know about the match.How did they get here?Tiafoe has dropped only one set in four matches. He had straight-sets wins against Learner Tien of the United States and Sebastian Ofner of Austria. In the third round, he faced Adrian Mannarino, a 22nd-seeded Frenchman, who took the first set. But Tiafoe won in four sets even as Mannarino gave him trouble, pushing a tiebreaker in the fourth set.Tiafoe cruised in the fourth round in another straight-sets victory, this time against Rinky Hijikata of Australia.Shelton has played more matches than Tiafoe at the U.S. Open. In addition to men’s singles, Shelton played, and lost, in the first round of the men’s doubles draw. He also won his quarterfinals match on Monday with his partner, Taylor Townsend.Shelton’s serve has reached 149 miles per hour twice at this U.S. Open.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesShelton defeated Pedro Cachin of Argentina in the first round in four sets, then caught a break in the second round when his opponent, Dominic Thiem of Austria, retired in the second set with what appeared to be a stomach-related issue.He then beat Aslan Karatsev of Russia in four sets and upset Paul, also in four sets.Beware of Shelton’s serve.One of Shelton’s best tools is his powerful serve. In his fourth-round match, he fired a 149-miles-per-hour ace against Paul. The serve has been the fastest at this tournament so far.“He’s throwing his whole arm in that thing,” Tiafoe said on Sunday.But Tiafoe can serve well, too. In his third-round match against Hijikata, Tiafoe had 15 aces, including two back to back in the second set that were clocked at 129 and 134 m.p.h.Still, Tiafoe acknowledged on Sunday that Shelton was more than a big serve. Shelton hits solid volleys, isn’t afraid to come to the net and plays with a lot of energy, Tiafoe said.“He’s going to throw the kitchen sink at me,” Tiafoe said.Keep an eye on Tiafoe’s drop shot.Among Tiafoe’s tools is a sneaky drop shot that he likes to use at the right moment. While his drop shot can be tough for his opponents to return, Tiafoe says he tries not to use it too often.“Because then they’re looking for it,” he said.Part of what makes playing Tiafoe difficult is that he can be unpredictable, mixing his drop shots with slices and play at the net. In his fourth-round match, Tiafoe fired an ace at 135 m.p.h. He followed it with a drop shot.Whether it’s with a two-handed backhand or a drop shot, Tiafoe wants to keep his opponent on his toes.Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times“It’s more fun when you’re out there just using your head and using different stuff and keeping your opponent on their toes,” he said.Aware of that, Shelton on Sunday described Tiafoe as “a nightmare to deal with.”“He’s just one of those guys where it’s must-see TV,” Shelton said of Tiafoe. “You want to watch him play all the time. He kind of has that Carlos Alcaraz effect, especially here in New York. This is his place where he really wants to show up.”Tiafoe has been here before.A quarterfinal match at the U.S. Open will be a first for Shelton, who said that reaching the final eight of the tournament had been a dream of his since he was a child.Tiafoe reached the semifinals last year, losing to Alcaraz. After coming so close to the final last year, he will be eager to have another shot.“I want to be playing my best tennis here,” Tiafoe said after his third-round match. “That’s ultimately what matters.”Taylor Fritz or Novak Djokovic await.The winner of Tuesday’s match will face Fritz or Djokovic, the 23-time Grand Slam champion, in the semifinals on Friday. Djokovic is heavily favored to win in the quarterfinals, but Fritz reached the final eight without dropping a set.Djokovic has won three of his four matches in straight sets, but he ran into trouble in the third round against his fellow countryman Laslo Djere, who took the first two sets before losing in five. More

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      How Coco Gauff Can Beat Jelena Ostapenko in the U.S. Open Quarterfinals

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      Here’s what to know about the singles match between Gauff and Ostapenko, and Gauff’s return to the U.S. Open quarterfinals.Coco Gauff, a 19-year-old American who has had an outstanding summer, will take on Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open on Tuesday.The two have played twice before, with Ostapenko winning their most recent encounter, at the Australian Open in January. Ostapenko beat Gauff in straight sets in a fourth-round match. But in their first meeting, in 2019, Gauff defeated Ostapenko in three sets in the final of the Linz Open in Austria.Gauff, who is seeded sixth, has the advantage of playing in her home country’s Grand Slam tournament and the added confidence from winning the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., and the Western & Southern Open in Ohio in the past month. But Ostapenko, seeded 20th, is also on a tear: She eliminated Iga Swiatek, the defending champion and world No. 1, on Sunday night.Here’s what to know about the match.How did they get here?Gauff defeated Laura Siegemund, a tricky player from Germany, in the first round. Siegemund hit slices and drop shots, catching Gauff on her back foot, and won the first set. But Gauff won the match in three sets after playing more aggressively.Gauff also defeated Mirra Andreeva, a 16-year-old from Russia; Elise Mertens of Belgium; and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who recently returned to professional tennis after retiring in 2020.Ostapenko notably defeated Swiatek, who will lose her No. 1 ranking at the end of the Open, in a fourth-round match. Ostapenko is one of the few players who have beaten Swiatek consistently. Her win on Sunday was the fourth in a row against her.On her way to the quarterfinals, Ostapenko also defeated Jasmine Paolini of Italy, Elina Avanesyan of Russia and Bernarda Pera, who was born in Croatia but represents the United States. Each of those matches went three sets.Jelena Ostapenko’s aggressive game can sometimes work against her.Sarah Stier/Getty ImagesBeware of Ostapenko’s aggression.Ostapenko’s aggressive game is built on playing fast and with a lot of power. She credited that playing style for her ability to consistently defeat Swiatek, who appreciates having more time to set up her points.Sometimes that aggressive game works against her, and she racks up unforced errors. She had 20 unforced errors in the match against Swiatek. Gauff recognizes that. On Sunday, she called Ostapenko a “striker,” but “hot or cold, to be honest.”For Ostapenko’s part, she’s trying to be more selective of when she goes for her shots.Keep an eye on Gauff’s net game.Gauff, who is one of the fastest players on the tour, is no stranger to powerful shots, having the ability to track down balls and to hit them back with the same power, or more. Gauff responds well to powerful shots from the baseline, waiting until she has an opening to rush the net and put away points with overheads, swing volleys and volleys.Gauff serves with precision, at times making it difficult for her opponents to put their rackets on the ball to return it well, as spectators saw in Gauff’s fourth-round match against Wozniacki.But it is well known that Gauff’s forehand has been her weaker shot, and while she has been working hard to improve it with her new coach, Brad Gilbert, if an opponent can force errors on that wing, it can make a win for Gauff that much more difficult.Gauff has been here before.This is Gauff’s second time in the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open. She also made them last year, when she was defeated in straight sets by Caroline Garcia of France.While this is also the second time Ostapenko has been in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, she made the quarterfinals of the Australian Open this year and has made deeper runs in other Grand Slam tournaments. She was a semifinalist at Wimbledon in 2018 and won the 2017 French Open.There is excitement for the American men and women right now, and the crowd will be in Gauff’s corner. At least one American man will make it to the semifinals this year because Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton are playing each other in one of the quarterfinals. Taylor Fritz, who is playing Novak Djokovic, could make it two.“It’s nice to just see the competitiveness between the countrymen and us all doing well,” Gauff said in an interview on Sunday. “It’s just really exciting tennis for America. I hope that fans are excited.”Sorana Cirstea or Karolina Muchova await.The winner of the match will play 30th-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania or 10th-seeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic, who are also playing on Tuesday. More

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      Why Does Frances Tiafoe Change His Shirt So Often at the US Open?

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      During a changeover 26 minutes into his second-round match against Sebastian Ofner, Frances Tiafoe reached into his bag, pulled out a fresh top and changed his shirt. Twenty-four minutes later, up by 4-1 in the second set, he swapped that shirt for a clean one again.Between the second and third set, Ofner took a medical timeout. Tiafoe had been wearing his shirt for only about six minutes, but he was ready for another.Before the match ended, Tiafoe changed his teal sleeveless shirt once more. By the end of his straight-sets victory over Ofner, there was a pile of sweaty shirts by Tiafoe’s bench. He picked them all up and stuffed them into his bag before leaving the court. (Those shirts are later given to the U.S. Open staff members who take care of the laundry.)Through the fourth round, Tiafoe had changed his top 20 times, an average of five times per match.“I don’t want to feel like I’m playing with really sweaty clothes just because I’m not prepared,” Tiafoe said. “I know how much I can sweat.”Maansi Srivastava/The New York TimesHe will usually return to his bench, hydrate and towel off his face and body before slipping into a fresh shirt. He has no specific method for determining when he needs to change. Sometimes he’ll grab a fresh shirt out of his bag at the end of a set. Other times, he will change multiple times in a single set.It is not uncommon for a player who has been sweating in a competition to change into a clean shirt a few times each match. But Tiafoe has taken freshening up to an elite, seemingly compulsive level.If he feels uncomfortable, he wants a fresh top.“You want to be as light as you can on the court,” Tiafoe said after his second-round victory, adding that if he feels even a small amount of moisture on his shirt, he’ll change it. “I’m very adamant about that.”Many athletes have quirks. Superstitious baseball players hop over foul lines to avoid bad luck. Rafael Nadal, the 22-time Grand Slam champion, is steadfast about having two water bottles by his bench positioned diagonally from each other with the logos facing the court. For Tiafoe, it is a near obsession with changing shirts — perhaps more than any other player on the men’s tour.Tiafoe changing his shirt during his match against Sebastian Ofner.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesAt tournaments, many players wear one outfit and stick with it; others swap out an outfit only if it is uncomfortable or seems unlucky. At last year’s U.S. Open, Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, asked an umpire for permission to change her outfit in the middle of a match.Players can change tops from their benches during matches. Men are allowed two opportunities to leave the court for a complete outfit change in a best-of-five match, and women are allowed one change of attire in a best-of-three match.“Shirts, socks and shoes should be changed on court,” the International Tennis Federation rule book says.At this year’s U.S. Open, Tiafoe has sported a teal, sleeveless top patterned with shades of baby blue, coral, peach and maroon. He has completed his ensemble with teal shorts and a pair of bright red shoes with his nickname, Big Foe, across the heels.Tiafoe said he packed as many as 20 tops in his bag to be sure he had enough for his matches. He also takes two extra pairs of shoes, in case a pair becomes too sweaty.“I don’t want to feel like I’m playing with really sweaty clothes just because I’m not prepared,” Tiafoe said. “I know how much I can sweat.”And Tiafoe sweats a lot. In a couple of his matches at this tournament, even after he has changed shirts, Tiafoe has needed help from a ball crew member to peel his shirt off his back because the top had stuck to his shoulders.Tiafoe asking a ball boy to help him unroll his shirt.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesThe weather at the U.S. Open has appeared to play a role in how many times Tiafoe has changed clothes.In his first-round match, the humidity levels made playing conditions feel muggy inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. In that match, against Learner Tien, Tiafoe changed his shirt six times.But even after a cold front swept through New York in time for Tiafoe’s second- and third-round matches, he perspired enough to change four times on Wednesday against Ofner and four times on Friday against Adrian Mannarino.By his fourth-round match against Rinky Hijikata on Sunday, temperatures had reached 88 degrees. This week, the forecast is for humid days with temperatures into the 90s through Thursday, above normal for this time of year in New York, before settling into the 80s for the semifinals and final.When Tiafoe plays Ben Shelton in the quarterfinals on Tuesday that will probably mean more sweat and more shirt changes.But who’s counting? More

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      Iga Swiatek, No. 1 Seed at U.S. Open, Loses in Fourth Round

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      Swiatek, the top-ranked woman, lost to Jelena Ostapenko in three sets.When Iga Swiatek, the No. 1 seed at the U.S. Open, took the first set against Jelena Ostapenko on Sunday night, it seemed like business as usual.Swiatek, a four-time Grand Slam tournament champion at 22, after all, was the reigning U.S. Open champion, and going into her match against Ostapenko, she had not dropped a set at this tournament.But while Swiatek is often able to cruise through matches, Ostapenko has been a bit of a thorn in her side. Ostapenko has been undefeated against Swiatek, and extended that to four wins with a victory on Sunday night, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.In the second set, the match shifted. Ostapenko began to take control. When Ostapenko evened things up at a set apiece, Swiatek seemed to be out of her comfort zone.As she struggled, Swiatek looked up at her box, appearing to ask for some sort of advice to contend with Ostapenko’s surge. Her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, didn’t seem to have an answer for her, and Swiatek sarcastically clapped toward her box, as if to convey thank you for nothing.“I don’t really know what happened with my game,” Swiatek said after the match. “I felt no control suddenly.”Throughout the third set, Ostapenko was unrelenting. “I had to be aggressive because that’s what she doesn’t really like,” Ostapenko said in an on-court interview after the match. “I was just fighting until the very last point.”With the loss, Swiatek will descend in the rankings after 75 weeks as the women’s No. 1, paving the way for Aryna Sabalenka, this year’s Australian Open champion, to ascend to the top.“It was pretty exhausting,” Swiatek said on holding the No. 1 spot for so long. “I still need to do all this stuff that my team and all these great players like Roger or Novak or Rafa are telling about: you just have to focus on the tournaments, not the rankings.”Ostapenko will now face Coco Gauff, the American seeded No. 6, in a quarterfinal on Tuesday. Gauff also recently figured out how to defeat Swiatek after beating her in the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open in Ohio last month.Ostapenko and Gauff have faced each other twice, most recently at the Australian Open, where Ostapenko defeated Gauff in straight sets in the round of 16. Gauff won their previous match in 2019.“It was a tough match,” Ostapenko said about her Australian Open match against Gauff earlier this year. “Of course, it’s going be another tough match. I don’t expect any easy matches here in a Grand Slam, so I’m ready for another battle.”But now, without Swiatek in the way, the U.S. Open women’s singles draw opens up much more widely. Suddenly, the path to the final has become easier for Ostapenko, Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Ons Jabeur and Sabalenka.Gauff is ready for Ostapenko, whom she described on Sunday as a hard hitter ahead of Ostapenko’s victory.“With Jelena, she’s a striker, ball-striker. I lost to her in Australian Open this year. She’s hot or cold, to be honest,” Gauff said.The winner of Ostapenko and Gauff will take on the winner of a quarterfinals match between Sorana Cirstea and Karolina Muchova in the semifinals. Cirstea, of Romania, reached the quarterfinals after upsetting Belinda Bencic, the 15th seed, on Sunday. Muchova, a finalist at this year’s French Open, made it to the quarterfinals having only dropped one set in four matches.For now, Ostapenko is focused on Gauff, whom she expects to pose a difficult challenge.“I will try to focus on myself and enjoy it,” Ostapenko said. “It’s great to be in quarterfinals, especially here in New York.” More

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      At the U.S. Open, It Feels Like the Fourth of July

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      A decade or so ago, back when Tommy Paul, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe were rowdy teenagers raising hell at the United States Tennis Association dormitories in Florida, they dreamed that days like Sunday at the U.S. Open would eventually come.Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton were barely 10 years old back then, still figuring out how large a role tennis was going to play in their childhoods, though it was a safe bet it would be pretty large.Flash forward to Sunday at the U.S. Open, and those five players were at the center of what figured to be a daylong American tennis festival in the fourth round, a part of the tournament when, for so long, especially on the men’s side, players from Europe have filled the starring roles. Not on Sunday, when the year’s final Grand Slam tournament got down to serious business and the round of 16.With Ben Shelton facing Tommy Paul, it guaranteed an American would advance to the quarterfinals. It ended up being Shelton.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesThe schedule featured wall-to-wall red, white and blue; Black and white and mixed race players; players from wealthy families (Fritz), from more humble means (Shelton, Gauff, Paul), and one (Tiafoe) who started with almost nothing; some players with years of tour experience and one so raw (Shelton) that he needed to get a passport last year so he could leave the United States for the first time to play in the Australian Open.“We always believed this would happen,” said Martin Blackman, the general manager for player development at the U.S.T.A., who has known all five players since their early years. “But you never know when.”When Serena Williams, a majestic and groundbreaking figure in sports and culture for more than two decades, retired from pro tennis at this tournament last year, she left big questions about who might begin to fill the massive void she was leaving, especially in American tennis. Some pretty good hints arrived within days. Gauff and Tiafoe — charismatic figures with bright eyes and big smiles who play with equal parts heart, skill and athleticism — blazed into the deep end of the 2022 tournament, the quarterfinals for Gauff and the semifinals for Tiafoe.That was last year, though, and there was no guarantee that they or any of their compatriots would reproduce the magic of some of those days. Sunday represented a decent midpoint indicator.Looking at the draw in the middle of last week, Fritz’s eyes drifted to the quarter just above him, where Shelton, Paul and Tiafoe were crowded together. Some big names were out, and his people were still very much alive. Immediately he thought, “One of them is going to be in the semis,” and that was pretty cool.Paul won the third set after losing the first two, but he could not force a decisive fifth set.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesPaul and Shelton got the action rolling at noon Sunday in the opening match at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The stands were filling up more with every changeover, getting louder each time Shelton’s booming serve put up big numbers on the radar gun.Two adrenaline-fueled blasts clocked in at 149 miles per hour as he built a commanding two-set lead before Paul came alive with the crowd rallying behind him. The stadium was near its capacity of 23,000 by the time his last forehand sailed long. It wasn’t the outcome Paul wanted, but the match had its moments.Early on, he looked up at the video board and saw that he and his buddies were on the list of Americans left in the tournament. He let that sink in, those names from the dormitory hall, names that were there in the late rounds of the junior national tournaments in his teenage years.“We grew up all together,” Paul said shortly after the loss. “Kind of cool.”Every Grand Slam tournament crowd throws its weight behind its home-country players. At the Australian Open, the “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oy, Oy Oy!” chant is a constant refrain. French crowds break out in spontaneous renditions of “La Marseillaise.” At Wimbledon, Britons will pack a field court to urge on a junior player they have never heard of with the same vigor they offer Andy Murray.The U.S. Open crowd, by reputation the rowdiest and most indecorous of them all, does its boisterous best to get its own over the line.Shelton, 20, hugged Paul at the net wanting to hear just what full-throated screams from the biggest crowd he had ever played before might sound like. Hard to blame him on that front.Shelton played to the crowd after his victory. His next opponent, Frances Tiafoe, is something of a showman, too.Karsten Moran for The New York Times“Amazing atmosphere, felt the love all day,” he said on the court moments later.And it stayed that way as Gauff played against Caroline Wozniacki, a former world No. 1. Wozniacki is on the comeback trail after having two children and has long been a crowd favorite in New York.That said, she had never played Gauff on a day that felt like a flashback to a couple generations ago, back to the eras when American men and women always held the promise of becoming the class of the sport and were among its biggest stars. This was part tennis match, part revival meeting, with more screams of “Go Coco!” than anyone could count in a building that Gauff, who is just 19, figures to be making her home for the next decade.A slight complication, a welcome one for the hometown crowd, arose as 4 p.m. approached when Tiafoe strutted into Louis Armstrong Stadium to play Rinky Hijikata of Australia just as Gauff was finding her groove. Like a parent facing a choice between children, Blackman needed a plan.“First set with Coco, then over to Frances,” he said as he rushed through a hallway underneath the stadium.Coco Gauff faced Caroline Wozniacki, a former world No. 1 popular with fans, but still enjoyed a partisan crowd.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesSlight complication for Gauff, too, in the form of a late-second and early third-set wobble that had her hitting backhand after backhand into the middle of the net. Wozniacki surged into the lead, breaking Gauff’s serve in the first game of the third set. But Gauff and her 20,000 friends weren’t about to let that last for long, not on this day. With a slew of “Come ons!” and teeth clenches she reeled off the final six games, bulldozing her way back into the quarterfinals.“Had some chants going, which was really nice,” Gauff said later. “The crowd doesn’t really compare to any of the other Slams.”She won two of the three U.S. Open tuneup tournaments and, despite dropping sets in three of her first four singles matches, is brimming with confidence.“I’ve been in this position before,” said Gauff, a French Open finalist last year. “I can go even further.”Meanwhile, over on Armstrong, Tiafoe was cruising.If Ashe is American tennis’s grand cathedral, Armstrong is its party space, a 10,000-seat concrete box with an upper level of seating that seems to hang almost directly above the court and a retractable roof that keeps sound echoing up and down and all around even when open. And no one these days, other than Carlos Alcaraz, knows how to throw a party like Tiafoe, 25, who broke into the top 10 of the rankings for the first time earlier this year.Tiafoe defeated Rinky Hijikata in straight sets at Louis Armstrong Stadium before turning the court over to Taylor Fritz.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesThe drunker and more spirited the fans the better as far as he is concerned. He pumps his fists, shakes his racket, and even throws out the occasional tongue wag after those curling forehands and jumping two-handed backhands, to make it just how he likes it, with as many hollers of “Go Big Foe!” as he can wring from them. It’s how he has long believed American tennis should be, and part of the reason he is Paul’s favorite player to watch in the sport.Up next for Tiafoe is Shelton, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.“He’s going to come after me, and I’m going to come after him,” he said. “I plan on being in the semi.”Then it was Fritz’s turn, filling the early evening slot on Armstrong, and taking the court shortly after Tiafoe left it, against Dominic Stricker, 21, of Switzerland, one of the surprises of the tournament. Stricker had to win three matches in the qualifying tournament to get into the main draw and he upset Stefanos Tsitsipas, a two-time Grand Slam singles finalist, in the second round. He had already played 22 sets of tennis in New York, including two five-setters, before he hit his first ball against Fritz.Taylor Fritz ended the run Dominic Stricker made out of the qualifying tournament by beating him in straight sets on Sunday.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesMuch of the Tiafoe crowd filed down the stairs into the main plaza of Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Waiting at the bottom were thousands more ready to take their place, Honey Deuces, Aperol spritzes, beers, poke bowls and fries in hand.Three American headliners had already moved on, and roughly three hours later Fritz had joined them, with a straight-sets win over Stricker, to make his second career Grand Slam singles quarterfinal, and his first since Wimbledon in 2022.“No other place I’d rather go on a run than here,” Fritz said.Madison Keys and Jessica Pegula were set to play each other in the fourth round Monday, and Peyton Stearns, out of Ohio and the University of Texas, was set to take on Marketa Vondrousova, this year’s Wimbledon champion. This home-country party was rolling on. More

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      When Coco Gauff and Zendaya Need Tennis Tips, They Ask Brad Gilbert

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      Gilbert, a former pro, coached Andre Agassi to a U.S. Open victory in 1994. Now he’s advising Gauff — in between calling matches — at this year’s tournament.Brad Gilbert — tennis junkie, junkballer, commentator, coach of legends — had roughly seven minutes to trade his coaching hat for a microphone, to shift from helping Coco Gauff manage her third-round match Friday night to interviewing Novak Djokovic in the tunnel before his.That match, by the way, ended just after 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, and Gilbert had spent Friday afternoon calling matches before heading to Gauff’s courtside box. It was well after 2 a.m. when he got back to the New York LaGuardia Airport Marriott. Then he spent an hour analyzing the video of the match that Gauff’s next opponent, Caroline Wozniacki, had won that afternoon. Finally, around 3:30 a.m., he clicked off the light. Rise and shine arrived at 6.“Been coming to this place since 1981,” Gilbert, who travels with an espresso machine, said between sips of coffee as he headed to his office, a.k.a. the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, on Saturday morning. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”Indeed, this is the life Gilbert has chosen.For 40 years, he has been a near-ubiquitous presence in the sport, rising through the 1980s to the No. 4 ranking in the world, despite his quirky, awkward, ugly strokes, then pivoting to coaching and television work, often at the same time, in that hybrid way that is oddly common in tennis. Andre Agassi had him at his side when he won the U.S. Open in 1994, as did Andy Roddick, in 2003.Now, at 62 and a decade removed from top-level coaching, Gilbert is back in the trenches and quickly becoming a star of this year’s U.S. Open, albeit in a supporting role to the 19-year-old Gauff, who is among the biggest stars of this quintessentially American tennis party. One minute, Gilbert is chatting and applauding Gauff through a practice session. The next, he’s hustling through the crowds, fist-bumping fans who treat him like an old buddy on his way up to the ESPN commentary booth to mingle with a decidedly older set of stars from his era, such as Chris Evert, Patrick McEnroe and Pam Shriver.Gilbert with Coco Gauff during a recent practice session.Earl Wilson/The New York Times“A very funny man,” Gauff said earlier this summer of Gilbert, whose coaching exploits she knew little about, since, as she pointed out with a giggle, they mostly happened before she was born. “I didn’t want to be with someone who’s a wall. But he’s definitely not a wall.”Tennis fans love and hate his nerdy player nicknames. Stan Wawrinka, the Swiss tank of a player, is “Stanimal.” Carlos Alcaraz is “Escape from Alcaraz.” And on and on.It’s a good life. Has been for a while.Gilbert is the same as he ever was, Shriver said. She and Gilbert first bonded at the 1988 Olympics, two sports nuts who won medals while hopscotching from swimming to wrestling to track and field to take in the competition.“He loved scouting,” Shriver said. “Loved game plans.”Last year took an unconventional turn. For nearly a decade, Gilbert had been working with junior players on private courts in California. Then the phone rang with an odd request.Zendaya, the actor and music star, had signed on to star in “Challengers,” an upcoming movie about a professional tennis love triangle.Small problem: She had no idea how to play tennis. Could Gilbert teach her and her co-stars Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist how to play well enough to not look ridiculous? Also, could he set up and design the points in the action scenes?Sure, why not, Gilbert said. He and Zendaya started showing up at Pepperdine University tennis matches to help her understand the game. There were three months of training in California, then four months of rehearsal and filming in Boston and New York.When it was done, Gilbert looked around and saw that his friends from television were coaching top pros part-time. Darren Cahill was working with Jannik Sinner, the Italian ranked sixth in the world. Shriver was working with Donna Vekic, the talented veteran from Croatia.Gilbert wanted back in with a top American player. He put the word out and began to get some offers, but he wanted to make sure it was with the right player, a member of the elite whom he believed he could help and who shared his hunger.Gauff celebrated her first-round win against Laura Siegemund at the U.S. Open.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesAfter Gauff lost in the first round at Wimbledon in July, another disappointing Grand Slam result for a player who believes she is ready to win the biggest titles, he got a call from her team. They wanted him to speak with her parents about sharing his been-there wisdom as an adviser alongside Gauff’s new and somewhat-inexperienced coach, Pere Riba.American? Check.Elite? Check.Hungry? Triple check.“A super kid,” he said of Gauff on Saturday.Gauff’s shortcomings were hardly a mystery: a shaky forehand and serve in tight moments; a struggle to maximize her prodigious strengths — her speed and ability to cover the court, her fitness, her blazing backhand, a laserlike first serve.Used the right way, those tools have gotten her far. Maybe Gilbert’s brain could get her over the line.“He loved discussing matchups, how to get to people’s weaknesses,” said Andy Murray, who worked with Gilbert earlier in his career. “It was very focused on the strategy and finding ways to win matches.”Gilbert and Gauff’s team have kept quiet about the specific ways he has helped her, but anyone who watches him and hears what he says from her box during matches can figure it out: Know what’s coming, and play to your strengths.“Make it physical, Coco,” is a constant refrain, a reminder that she can chase down balls all night long if she wants to, taking the legs and the heart out of opponents.Gilbert has little use for the statistics that have come into fashion among many elite teams. He ignores the screen in the coaching box that gives coaches real-time data.“I trust my eyes,” he said.He has been trying to introduce Gauff to his music, sending her links to songs by Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen and the Eagles. Gauff, a fan of City Girls — a Miami hip-hop duo featuring artists Yung Miami and JT — has yet to share her thoughts.Still, at the moment, she and her team have every reason to trust his eyes, too. Gauff has won two of her first three tournaments with him on the team, and 14 of 15 matches, including three at the U.S. Open.Andy Roddick, right, embraced Gilbert after winning the U.S. Open men’s singles final in 2003.Vincent Laforet/The New York TimesThen there is this: Gilbert began working with Agassi in March 1994, and Agassi won the U.S. Open that September. Gilbert began working with Roddick in June 2003. Three months later, Roddick was the U.S. Open championThey were different players. Agassi, Gilbert said, had a photographic memory and an analytical mind that could take apart a match hours later, stroke by stroke, with total recall. Roddick was so exuberant that Gilbert had roughly 15 seconds to deliver any message before his attention went elsewhere.His take on Gauff? Kind of like Zendaya, he said.Both were prodigies who began working on their craft and breaking through as young children. They’re around the same height, about 5-foot-10. And Zendaya has the wingspan of someone closer to 6-4, he said. Great athletic physique. If only he had gotten to teach her tennis when she was younger.They were texting the other day, on Zendaya’s 27th birthday. She told him she was watching and was all in on Gauff. He said he was, too. Just as he wanted. More

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      The Season’s Hottest Accessory: The Honey Deuce Cup

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      Tennis fans stack, stash and take home the collectible cup after downing the U.S. Open’s signature cocktail.Sometimes it sits alone on a table at the U.S. Open or in the grip of a thirsty tennis fan. Often it is stacked, maybe in a pair, maybe in a precariously balanced tower.Everywhere you look is the familiar clear cup of the Honey Deuce.For a while, columns of Honey Deuce cups were all that Christine Dinisi saw when she opened her cupboard while looking for a water glass. “For a long time, until about a year or two years ago, they were my only cups in my apartment,” said Dinisi, 34, who estimated she had about 20 in her kitchen at one point.The Honey Deuce, made of Grey Goose vodka, raspberry liqueur and lemonade, and garnished with honeydew melon in the shape of tennis balls, has been the signature cocktail of the U.S. Open since 2006. The drink is a draw all on its own, but the hard plastic cup, with the current year and names of previous U.S. Open winners printed on it, is a sought-after souvenir, helping some fans justify the cocktail’s $22 price.Sherita Gregory picks up a pair of Honey Deuce drinks.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesThe Honey Deuce cup was made sturdily so bartenders could pour and serve the drinks quickly and fans could safely carry them around the grounds.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesDinisi, a marketing services manager for a New York architecture and engineering firm, has been collecting the cups for years. She said the Honey Deuce was a motivating factor for her trips to Flushing Meadows Corona Park. “It may be one of the reasons to go to the U.S. Open,” she said.Last year, more than 405,000 of the cocktails were sold at the Open. On the middle weekend of the tournament, some stands ran out of the collectible cups, instead delivering the Honey Deuce in a generic cup for the reduced price of $20.On Monday, Trudy Potter, Susie McMullan and Debbie Morrison, all of Ridgefield, Conn., were leaving the Grandstand with eight cups stacked among them.“We come here for this,” Potter said of the cups. “My kids love them,” McMullan said.The friends enjoy collecting the cups as mementos of their visits to the U.S. Open, with the listing of the victors’ names offering a record of the tournament over time. “The years go by, and we remember the winners,” Potter said.Ivan Michalovic carried a stack of empty Honey Deuce cups.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesHoneydew melon balls awaited their fate.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesBut there’s a key, Morrison said, to keeping the cups in good condition year after year: “Hand-wash them,” she said. Otherwise, the cups may crack and fade.Dinisi has had to jettison a fair number of cracked cups over the years. But she likes that the cup looks more like a water glass than a typical stadium souvenir, and its hard plastic structure makes it sturdier than most.That was by design. Aleco Azqueta, the vice president for marketing at Grey Goose North America, said the acrylic cup was constructed so that bartenders could pour and serve the drinks as quickly as possible, and so that they would be safe for fans to carry around in a stadium.“For many fans, the cups are central to their entire U.S. Open experience,” Azqueta wrote in an email. “The tournament is a stylish affair, and it often feels like the Honey Deuce is treated as a fashion accessory.”Ashley Haslun working a bar at the U.S. Open. Last year more than 405,000 Honey Deuces were sold.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesA Honey Deuce cup care pro tip: Wash them by hand; don’t put them in the dishwasher, which can cause premature cracking and fading.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesWhether it’s making a chic statement at the seen-and-be-seen event that marks the unofficial end of summer or merely doing its job as a receptacle for a sweet, signature drink, the cup is ubiquitous at New York’s Grand Slam tournament.For her part, Dinisi relies less on the Honey Deuce cup now than she once did — “I finally broke down and bought some real, actual water glasses,” she said — but she’ll still take home one or two this year. It wouldn’t be the Open without them. More

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      Seen from Close-up: How the U.S. Open Dials in its Court Speed

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      From the seats in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the tennis court below appears smooth and uniform. Even the players who sprint and slide across the blue hardcourt can barely see or sense a characteristic that significantly sets the tone for their matches. Now take a look at this high-resolution scan of the surface in Ashe, where […] More