Coco Gauff's record at the Paris Olympics is perfect even if her play hasn't always been

PARIS (AP) — Coco Gauff is making it look easy at the Paris Olympics so far, adding a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina in the second round of singles Monday to her growing collection of lopsided results.

So what if Gauff had more than twice as many unforced errors, 26, as winners, 11? So what if she only put 55% of her first serves in play? So what if she wound up with six double-faults and zero aces?

So what if it took nearly 1 1/2 hours for the reigning U.S. Open champion and No. 2-ranked Gauff to finish off an opponent who is ranked 85th, has never won a tour-level singles title and owns an 0-2 career record at Grand Slam tournaments?

“You can’t argue with the scoreline, to be honest,” the 20-year-old American said.

Sure can’t.

Look at what she's managed to do so far at her first Olympics: Not only is Gauff 3-0 across singles and women's doubles, where her partner is Jessica Pegula, but she has dropped a combined total of only nine games across six sets in those three matches.

“I knew that she was just going to probably try to out-rally me, which I feel like is one of my strengths. But also I had the ability to be aggressive,” Gauff said about the matchup with Carle, someone she was familiar with from their days as junior players. "So I think I was just trying to balance the mistakes and not let her win a lot of points off my racket.”

Her match was played at Court Suzanne Lenglen at the same time that, across the way at Court Philippe Chatrier, Novak Djokovic was beating Rafael Nadal 6-1, 6-4 in the 60th head-to-head matchup between two rivals with 46 Grand Slam titles between them.

Gauff said she was “kind of sad" that she missed the chance to watch a contest between two players who “mean a lot” to their sport.

Men moving into the third round included Carlos Alcaraz, who defeated Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 6-1, 7-6 (3) on Monday night. Alcaraz needed a medical timeout for treatment from a trainer for a groin muscle issue in the second set, then was a point from getting pushed to a third, but finished the job.

“It’s a pain that I’ve been dealing with,” Alcaraz said, mentioning that it bothered him during his run to the Wimbledon championship this month. “I know what I have to do ... to deal with this pain.”

Alcaraz, a 21-year-old who also won the French Open in June for one of his four Grand Slam titles, is scheduled to team with Nadal in doubles for Spain on Tuesday against Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof.

“I will try to recover as soon and as (best) as I can tonight,” Alcaraz said, “to be ... 100% tomorrow in my doubles.”

Other winners were Casper Ruud of Norway and Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, who both have reached French Open finals.

In other action around the same facility used for the French Open, where Nadal won 14 of his 22 major championships, three-time major champion Angelique Kerber was a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 winner against Jaqueline Adina Cristian of Romania, and Wimbledon champ Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic and Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini of Italy advanced in straight sets.

Gauff's American teammates Danielle Collins and Emma Navarro both won, but the fifth-seeded Pegula was eliminated from singles 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 by Tokyo Games bronze medalist Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the day's last match. Collins eliminated 2018 Australian Open title winner Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

The next opponent for Gauff will be Donna Vekic, a Croatian who was a semifinalist at Wimbledon a little more than two weeks ago and got past 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu of Canada 6-3, 6-4 on Monday.

Gauff vs. Vekic was scheduled for Tuesday, as was the first-round match for Gauff and Taylor Fritz in mixed doubles.

Gauff is hoping to win three medals at these Games — in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. Since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988, no player has ever left a single Games with medals from three events.

On Monday, Gauff was not at all concerned by the heat, which rose into the 80s Fahrenheit for the first time during the Paris Olympics.

Being from Florida means that sort of thing is not a big deal to Gauff, although she made some concessions, wearing ice-filled towels to cool off during changeovers and taking an ice bath after the match.

“I’m just trying my best to be preventative before maybe I feel fatigue and everything,” Gauff said. "Obviously, my last two matches, I went quick. So I’m just trying to think for the future, towards the end of the tournament.”

AP National Writer Jenna Fryer contributed.

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Elina Svitolina of Ukraine returns a forehand shot to Jessica Pegula of the United States during their women's singles second round match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Jessica Pegula of the United States reacts after scoring a point against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine during their women's singles second round match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Elina Svitolina of Ukraine gestures during her women's singles second round match against Jessica Pegula of the United States, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain returns a forehand shot to Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands during their men's singles second round match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Casper Ruud of Norway returns the ball to Andrea Vavassori of Italy during the men's singles tennis competition at the at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Danielle Collins of the United States hits a forehand shot to Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark during their women's singles match at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Danielle Collins of the United States reacts after scoring a point against Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark during their women's singles match at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Emma Navarro of the United States returns a backhand shot against Viktoriya Tomova of Bulgaria during the women's singles tennis competition, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Serbia's Novak Djokovic, right, hugs Spain's Rafael Nadal after their men's singles second round match at the Roland Garros stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. Novak Djokovic dominated rival Rafael Nadal to win 6-1, 6-4 at the Paris Olympics in the second round. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina returns the ball against Coco Gauff of United States during the women's singles tennis competition at the at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Coco Gauff of United States returns the ball against Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina during the women's singles tennis competition at the at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Carlos Alcaraz of Spain reacts after scoring a point against Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands during their men's singles second round match, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Coco Gauff of United States returns the ball against Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina during the women's singles tennis competition at the at the Roland Garros stadium, at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Coco Gauff of the United States returns the ball against Maria Lourdes Carle of Argentina during the women's singles tennis competition at the Roland Garros Stadium at the 2024 Summer Olympics on Monday, July 29, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

SEATTLE (AP) — A year ago, the New York Yankees were knocked out of playoff contention with a week to go in the regular season, ending a string of six straight postseason appearances.

Remembering what that was like made wrapping up a playoff berth with more than a week left this time around feel that much better to the Yankees.

“A lot of things have come together. Probably better health overall. Definitely an added focus for guys that were coming off tough years and simply put, we’re better. We weren’t a great team last year and this team has a chance to do something special,” New York manager Aaron Boone said.

After spending last year sitting at home when the postseason arrived, the Yankees wrapped up their place in the playoffs with a 2-1 win over the Seattle Mariners in 10 innings Wednesday night.

New York has the best record in the American League at 89-63 and leads second-place Baltimore by five games in the AL East with 10 to play. The latest victory ensured the Yankees at least a wild card.

It’s the 59th postseason appearance in franchise history, but the Yankees are still trying to end a World Series drought that dates to 2009, when New York celebrated its 27th title.

Last year, the Yankees were hampered by an injury-riddled roster that was eliminated from playoff contention on Sept. 24. Before that, the Yankees hadn’t missed the postseason since 2016, when Aaron Judge had just 27 games of major league experience.

Now they’re headed back to the playoffs with Judge the MVP favorite in the American League, another hitting star in Juan Soto and a starting pitching staff that might have enough depth to carry the Yankees on a deep playoff run.

“(It’ll) definitely be exciting, especially after the season we had last year missing out on the postseason,” Judge said. “That’s what we came into the season to do, get into the postseason and give ourselves an opportunity to go out there and win a World Series. That’ll be step one, but we've got to get there first.”

The task over the final stretch is making sure that return to the playoffs includes going in as champions of the AL East. The recent slump by the Orioles has opened a gap in the division race and built perhaps enough of a cushion to take some of the drama away from next week’s three-game series between the teams in the Bronx.

But it only remains stress-free as long as the Yankees don’t stumble over the next few days. After closing out the series in Seattle on Thursday, the Yankees finish up their final trip with three games in Oakland.

They hope it’s the last time they have to be away from home for a while.

“Our goal is to win the division. That’s what we want to do," Soto said. “We’re going to focus on that and try to finish the season strong.”

Soto is a big reason the Yankees are back in the playoffs and might end up with home-field advantage in the American League. While Judge is rightfully the favorite to win his second MVP in the past three seasons with 53 homers and 136 RBIs, the contributions from Soto have been equally important.

Soto reached the 40-homer mark for the first time in Tuesday’s series opener against the Mariners. It was also the 200th longball of his career, at just age 25 and heading into an offseason when he will be the top free agent. The duo will probably determine just how deep this Yankees playoff run goes.

“Getting a front-row seat this year, all year, watching him, watching him go about it, watching him day in and day out, just a great hitter,” Boone said.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

New York Yankees' Anthony Rizzo follows through on an RBI double against the Seattle Mariners during the 10th inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

New York Yankees' Anthony Rizzo reacts after hitting an RBI double against the Seattle Mariners during the 10th inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

New York Yankees' Juan Soto hits a double against the Seattle Mariners during the third inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)

New York Yankees' Anthony Rizzo hits an RBI single to score Jasson Domínguez against the Seattle Mariners during the second inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)