"Next time, you need to tell me before I serve the ball," Coco Gauff told the chair umpire, sounding like someone playing her 10th, or at least her fifth, Australian Open—certainly not her first. "Because I'm not looking at her."
Gauff was serving down 3-4 in the deciding set of her second-round match against Sorana Cirstea. Her opponent putting her racquet up to indicate she was not ready to return would not be enough to penetrate Gauff's laser focus on the task at hand.
"First serve?" she asked before executing a serve-backhand-volley combo to win the point. "COME ON!" she screamed, at an intensity that would impress even Serena.
"The ones who are the great ones, they don't really fear anyone," she'd said after her first-round victory versus Venus Williams, her second straight-sets win over her in as many attempts. "They respect your opponent, but you can't go into the match fearing someone. Because then you're gonna lose, and I don't wanna lose."
In Round 2, Gauff did not lose. She was two points away from being sent home, but she took charge with a hard second serve at Cirstea's shoulder that would go unreturned.