Gauff overpowers Jovic to set up an Andreeva quarterfinal and complete a star-studded last eight
Coco Gauff was broken in the first game and won six straight, beating 18-year-old compatriot Iva Jovic 6-1, 6-4 to reach a US Open quarterfinal for the first time since her 2023 title. Nineteen sets have now passed without the American losing one, and Mirra Andreeva is next.
Coco Gauff, US Open 2026 | © Virginie Bouyer for Creafeed & MTG
Coco Gauff was broken in the opening game of her fourth round to Iva Jovic. She then won six in a row, and the evening never came back to the No. 14 seed, the American No. 4 seed beating her 18-year-old compatriot, 6-1, 6-4 on Monday night in New York to reach the US Open quarterfinals for the first time since she won the title in 2023.
Gauff plays Russian No. 5 seed Mirra Andreeva in the quarterfinals, in a field also containing Aryna Sabalenka, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula, Navarro, Linda Noskova and Zheng Qinwen.
US Open 2026, women’s singles quarter finals
A. Sabalenka [1] vs L. Noskova [6]
J. Pegula [3] vs E. Navarro [26]
M. Andreeva [5] vs. C. Gauff [4]
Q. Zheng (Q) vs. E. Rybakina [2]
The gap between Gauff and Jovic showed up on return. Gauff won 58% of the points on Jovic’s first serve and 56% of all the points she received, breaking five times. She struck 18 winners to nine and made half as many unforced errors, 15 against 30. Gauff also took eight of the last ten points to serve the match out from 0-30.
Gauff’s 20 straight sets take her back to the last eight
The win was her tenth in a row and her 45th of the season, and she has not dropped a set in 20. She has needed the run: the fourth round had become the place her US Open stopped, beaten there by Emma Navarro in 2024 and by Naomi Osaka in 2025. She arrived in it this year past Spain’s Cristina Bucsa 6-3, 6-4, Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez 6-3, 6-4 and Spain’s Paula Badosa 6-4, 7-6 (5).
It is her 12th Grand Slam quarterfinal, and the company that number puts her in is the story of her career so far. Since 2000, only Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova have reached more before turning 23. Gauff, at 22, is level with Kim Clijsters. The Jovic match also extended a separate streak: she has now won her last seven Grand Slam matches against American opponents, the most recent defeat being to Navarro, who is also in this quarterfinal field.
Her own account of the match was less emphatic than the scoreline. “I thought today was a good match for me. First set was really high-level for me, and she raised her level in the second. I had some opportunities to maybe get up some early breaks.”
She finished it with a serve-and-volley on match point, having not attempted one all evening. “Before I hit that serve, I was, like, I’m either going to love this or regret this. I don’t think I hit one the whole match, so I don’t know why I decided on match point to do it. The idea came into my brain, and I’m, like, you know what, why not? I did it, and it worked.”
Jovic’s first second week ends on 30 unforced errors
Jovic, ranked at a career-high No. 14, had become the fourth American teenager this century to reach the second week at the US Open, after Serena Williams in 2000 and 2001, Melanie Oudin in 2009 and Gauff in 2022 and 2023. She got there by beating Poland’s Magdalena Frech 7-5, 6-3, English qualifier Francesca Jones 6-4, 6-4 and Filipino No. 17 seed Alexandra Eala 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, the last of those over three sets and two of them from a set down.
US Open 2026, women’s singles Fourth Round:
A. Sabalenka [1] d. T. Townsend: 6-3, 6-4
L. Noskova [6] d. M. Kostyuk [11]: 7-5, 5-7, 6-4
J. Pegula [3] d. S. Cirstea [16]: 6-3, 6-4
E. Navarro [26] d. A. Kalinskaya [21]: 6-4, 6-2
M. Andreeva [5] d. A. Potapova [24]: 5-7, 6-4, 6-3
C. Gauff [4] d. I. Jovic [14]: 6-1, 6-4
Q. Zheng (Q) d. I. Swiatek [8]: 7-5, 6-3
E. Rybakina [2] d. N. Osaka [13]: 6-1, 6-4
