Coco Gauff: Defending champion produces stirring comeback to beat Elina Svitolina at US Open - 'This win means a lot'

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Coco Gauff took a step closer to defending her US Open crown with a thrilling three-set victory over Ukraine's Elina Svitolina in the third round. Svitolina took the first set before Gauff hit back to complete a hard-fought 3-6 6-3 6-3 win in two hours and three minutes on Arthur Ashe. She will play either her fellow American Emma Navarro or Ukrainian 19th seed Marta Kostyuk next.

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Coco Gauff came from a set down and survived a late wobble to beat Elina Svitolina 3-6 6-3 6-3 and move into the fourth round of the US Open.

American Gauff, 20, lost the opener and faced break points in the second set before rallying in front of a typically raucous New York crowd to turn the match around and complete a thrilling victory on Arthur Ashe.

"This win means a lot," Gauff said. "I knew today was going to be a tough match. Every time I play Elina, she's a fighter.

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"I knew I had to bring my best tennis. I thought I played well. I served much better than last match except the last service game but overall I was proud of what I was able to do."

On how she turned the match around, she added: "I think I tried to be more aggressive, especially on my forehand side and making fewer errors on the backhand.

"I was missing a lot of backhands in the net so I was just trying to make fewer errors.

"She was playing well. She was playing aggressive. She was hitting her spots and I think the difference was just me being more aggressive, especially on serve."

Defending champion Gauff is now unbeaten in 10 matches at Flushing Meadows but was made to dig deep to come through a gruelling encounter with 27th seed Svitolina.

She admitted ahead of the clash she would need to produce her best tennis to prevail against the Ukrainian, who is a former US Open semi-finalist, but she was slow out of the gates.

From the outset, it was Svitolina who looked far more assured from the back of the court, putting almost constant pressure on her opponent’s serve in the first set.

And the 29-year-old finally made the breakthrough in the eighth game to move 5-3 ahead before holding to take a one-set advantage.

But the match turned midway through the second when Svitolina missed a chance to break for a 3-2 lead before being broken in the next game.

That seemed to breathe fresh life into Gauff, who began to dictate points and dominate behind her increasingly effective first serve.

She levelled with a love hold and maintained her momentum in the third. Gauff broke twice as the errors began to flow from her opponent’s racquet, although Svitolina recovered one of the breaks when the home favourite let three match points slip at 5-2 and 40-0 up.

Gauff would not be denied, though. She broke Svitolina to love to seal a dramatic win and set up a meeting with either compatriot Emma Navarro or Ukrainian 19th seed Marta Kostyuk in the next round.

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