Teen Coco Gauff reaches maiden US Open quarterfinal with straight-set victory over Chinese

Coco Gauff raised a fist, n wagged her right index finger, responding to, and riling up even more, a loud-louder-loudest Arthur Ashe Stium crowd that was standing and screaming.

Gauff's U.S. Open opponent, Zhang Shuai, covered both ears with her hands to shield m from what she described later as a “Boom!” of sound.

Gauff and her fans were reacting excitedly to quite a point, one in which 18-year-old Floridian raced to her right for a defensive forehand, n changed directions to sprint and slide into a backhand that drew a netted volley from Zhang. Just four points later, Gauff was a quarterfinalist at Flushing Meows for first time.

Gauff, French Open runner-up in June, came back in each set to beat China's Zhang 7-5, 7-5 on Sunday to become youngest American to make it this far at U.S. Open since Melanie Oudin was 17 in 2009.

“Here, I can't hear myself scream. Makes me want to do it more. I think I'm feeding off momentum a lot. I enjoy it,” said No. 12 seed Gauff, who meets No. 17 Caroline Garcia of France on Tuesday.

“New York is bringing out a side of me that I haven't h since I was 15, so it's nice.” Nick Kyrgios is playing much better than he ever has at Flushing Meows, too, building off momentum of his run to Wimbledon final in July, and he eliminated defending champion and No. 1-ranked Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (11), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday night.

23rd-seeded Kyrgios was up to some of his usual behavior — warned for cursing, yelling at his guest box, playing to crowd — but he also outplayed Medvedev in a high-quality match.

“I'm just gl I'm finally able to show New York my talent,” said Kyrgios, never past third round at U.S. Open until now.

“I haven't h too many great trips here.” He'll play No. 27 seed Karen Khachanov on Tuesday, when or's men's quarterfinal on top half of bracket is 2022 French Open runner-up Casper Ruud against 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini.

Medvedev will relinquish top spot in rankings after U.S. Open, with Ruud joining Rafael Nal and Carlos Alcaraz as players with a chance to replace him.

After trailing 5-4 in opening set, n 5-3 in second, which she was a point from losing, Gauff was buoyed by spectators who cheered her every point and chanted “Let's go, Coco!” as end neared. She improved to 4-0 in Ashe this year after having never previously won a match at biggest arena in Grand Slam tennis.

How loud was it? “It got so racuous in re that I got a heache. I h to take an vil,” said Gauff's far, Corey.

“I kept pinching myself. I'm like, My gosh, all of se people here for my daughter.' You dream about this, but you never know if you're going to realize that. She was pumping herself up and y responded to her. It sent chills up my spine.” Zhang, at 33 oldest woman to reach fourth round, said it was more noise than she's ever heard at a match.

She praised Gauff's play, calling her “a superstar” and ding: “Everything is very good. She's so much younger than me. Her energy is so much better. She's faster. She's powerful.” y competed mostly from baseline, and longer exchanges, more success Gauff found: She claimed a 45-26 edge in points that lasted five or more strokes.

Garcia is coming off a hard-court title at Cincinnati and stretched her winning streak to 12 matches by defeating No. 29 Alison Riske-Amritraj of U.S. 6-4, 6-1.

“I'm super excited, actually, to play Coco — in U.S., in New York, quarterfinal of a Slam. It's great,” Garcia said.

or quarterfinal on that half of women's field will be between Ajla Tomljanovic, player who beat Serena Williams in third round, and No. 5 Ons Jabeur, who was runner-up at Wimbledon. Tomljanovic got past Liudmila Samsonova 7-6 (8), 6-1 at Louis Armstrong Stium in a matchup between unseeded players, while Jabeur defeated No. 18 Veronika Kudermetova 7-6 (1), 6-4.

Tomljanovic is a 29-year-old Australian who is now into her third Grand Slam quarterfinal after making it that far at Wimbledon past two years. On Wednesday, Tomljanovic beat Williams in three sets in what is expected to be last match of 23-time Grand Slam champion's career.

In Gauff-Zhang, whirring of Ashe retractable roof being pulled shut accompanied start of second set because of showers that started soon after, and it took a while for artificial lights to reach full strength. match proceeded, even though it was rar dark — and quite humid — indoors.

Zhang started getting a bit better of back-and-forth midway through second set, and when she hit a backhand winner of her own, she broke to le 5-3.

Last year's U.S. Open doubles champion — she and Sam Stosur beat Gauff and Caty McNally in final — served to force a third set, and was a point away from getting re, but Gauff steeled herself and stood her ground.

That set point was frittered away when Zhang sent a backhand long. Gauff smacked — what else? — a down--line backhand winner for her third break point of that game, n delivered a good return to a corner that drew a long backhand to make it 5-4 and start a four-game, match-closing run.

Everyone's known how talented Gauff is for a while now. After all, at 15, she became youngest qualifier in Wimbledon history in 2019, beat Venus Williams in first round of main draw and me it all way to fourth.

re have been more steps along way, more achievements — last month, she became second-youngest doubles No. 1 in WTA history — and her ever-developing game — most notable recent improvements were to her forehand and second serve — keeps carrying her closer to top of singles rankings and closer to a Grand Slam title.

And at this point, having full sport of more than 20,000 folks in Ashe doesn't hurt, eir.

“She's found a home re,” D said. “I hope she's going to play re for rest of tournament.”