Olympic gold medallist Zheng, defending champion Gauff win 1st-round matches at U.S. Open

The chant rang out in cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday at the U.S. Open before Coco Gauff’s first service game of her first match of her first Grand Slam tournament as a defending champion: “Here we go, Coco! Here we go!”

Coming to Flushing Meadows off a series of early exits at other events, Gauff already was down 1-0 to Varvara Gracheva, having dropped the match’s initial game at love by making four groundstroke errors. What followed was a tough, tight game, featuring 14 points across eight minutes and three break chances for Gracheva.

The important part, of course, was that Gauff saved all of those break points, claimed that game, and suddenly was in complete control on the way to a 6-2, 6-0 victory that not only put the 20-year-old American in the second round but also told her — and everyone else — that her game is in better shape than it appeared lately.

Day 1 at the year’s last Grand Slam tournament went about as well as possible for Gauff and another young American featured in Ashe, 13th-seeded Ben Shelton, a semifinalist a year ago who beat 2020 champion Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-2, 6-2. It was the last U.S. Open match for Thiem, who turns 31 next week and is retiring after this season.

“Obviously she plays with a lot of passion,” Shelton, 21, said about Gauff. “You could tell that she cares out there. She’s into it every time that she’s on the court. I think that’s something that the people love.”

Gauff was not the only past U.S. Open champ on Monday’s schedule: The night session in Ashe included 2017 winner Sloane Stephens against Clara Burel, followed by Novak Djokovic — whose collection of 24 Slam titles includes last year’s in New York — against Radu Albot.

Zheng, Zverev among winners

Seeded women’s winners included No. 7 Zheng Qinwen, the women’s gold medallist at the Paris Olympics earlier this month; No. 24 Donna Vekic, the silver medallist; No. 12 Daria Kasatkina; and No. 14 Madison Keys.

Among the men’s seeds advancing were No. 4 Alexander Zverev, the runner-up to Thiem four years ago; No. 6 Andrey Rublev; No. 8 Casper Ruud, the 2022 runner-up at Flushing Meadows; No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov; and No. 12 Taylor Fritz.

Zheng is enjoying a breakthrough season that began with a run to the final at the Australian Open in January and reached a peak when she claimed China’s first Summer Games singles gold. Monday was difficult at the outset against 2019 French Open semifinalist Amanda Anisimova, but Zheng eventually came back to win 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

“Everything starts at zero. You are not anymore the Olympic champion,” Zheng said. “Just be humble and try to work, fight every single match, because if you don’t fight, you have a big chance to lose.”

Gauff rebounding from tough Olympic stretch

That mirrors Gauff’s approach as she returns to the site of her greatest triumph so far.

If she was trying to start from scratch after early exits in three events at the Paris Games — not that she wants to forget about that trip to France; Gauff wore a necklace with the Olympic rings during Monday’s match — followed by a two-match skid on North American hard courts, Gauff did a good job of it.

She only needed 66 minutes to win Monday, using some of her 10 aces to help erase all eight break points Gracheva accumulated, and compiling a 16-5 edge in winners.

Five Canadians are scheduled to open their tournament on Tuesday: Felix Auger-Aliassime (11 a.m. ET), Denis Shapovalov (2:15 p.m.) and Gabriel Diallo (3:30), followed by Leylah Fernandez (4:15 p.m.) and Bianca Andreescu (7 p.m.).

In the 2019 women’s final, Andreescu downed tennis great Serena Williams 6-3, 7-5 to become the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles title.

WATCH | Highlights from Andreescu’s 2019 U.S. Open title win: