Three hours that refused to end
The Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd spent most of Saturday night behind Alexandra Eala. By the finish, after 10 o’clock in New York and more than three hours of tennis, it was applauding both players without much distinction. Iva Jovic won 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, and the scoreline explains very little of what produced it.
The counting stats get closer. Jovic struck 44 winners against 27 unforced errors, Eala 34 winners against 33. Roughly one clean point per game separated them across a match built on extended rallies, and that margin was the difference between a fourth round and a flight home.
For long stretches Eala looked like the player who would take it. She broke in the opening game of the decider and consolidated for a 2-0 lead, the kind of start that usually settles a match at that hour of the night.
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A decider full of switchbacks
Jovic broke back two games later and the set turned into a run of reversals. She built a 4-2 lead and could not keep it. She levelled again with a pinpoint winner off Eala’s serve, then moved to 5-4 with a running forehand volley that had no business landing.
Her first match point arrived on Eala’s serve in the following game and died in the net off her backhand. Eala held. Jovic answered by holding for 6-5, finishing the game with an ace at 40-15, and on her second match point Eala’s forehand found the net.
Jovic went straight down onto the court. By the time she stood up, Eala had already crossed to her side to meet her.
Gauff is next
This is the furthest the 18-year-old American has been at her home Grand Slam, and the reward is Coco Gauff. The former US Open champion beat Cristina Bucsa 6-3, 6-4 earlier in the day to reach the fourth round in New York for a fifth consecutive year, a run of consistency at this tournament that nobody else left in the draw can match.
Eala leaves with the harder version of the same story. She held the third set twice and gave it back on the two points that decided it.
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