US Open Day 5 recap: Biles inspires tearful Gauff; Townsend-Ostapenko debate rages on

Surreal scenes unfolded on the Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday evening in New York as Coco Gauff sat down in her chair after being broken at 4-4 in the first round in her second round match against Donna Vekic.The American buried her face in the blue towel and started to shake in emotional scenes on the biggest court in tennis. The 2023 US Open, whose serve has been a hot topic recently, had just served two double faults in that serve game. Clearly, the effects of serve struggles were having a toll on her.Moments later, as Vekic received medical treatment, Gauff practiced her serve instead of taking a breather and she needed to. Serves were landing close to the baseline even though the speeds were lowered. She later admitted it was “the worst I’ve ever felt on the court.”Watch: Coco Gauff wipes tears after US Open win“I think it was just nerves and just pressure, honestly, and I’m someone that usually can thrive on that. There’s been a lot on me this tournament, more than usual, which I expected coming in. So yeah, basically what you saw out there was what it was, and I was able to reset through it.”Part of the inspiration act in reseting was the loud home crowd and presence of multi-Olympic gold medallist Simone Biles in the stands.21-year-old Gauff said the thought of Biles doing her job on a balance beam gave her confidence to know she could perform on a tennis court.“She helped me pull it out,” said Gauff, who wiped away tears even after the match concluded. “It brought me a little bit of calm just knowing her story with all the things she went through mentally.”The admiration of a fellow young athlete, struggling mentally, but still powering through, was shared by Biles.“She's incredible, amazing and it's like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Biles said on ESPN. “It's just such a privilege to watch her on home soil and watch Black girl magic.”Ostapenko-Townsend fire rages onThe post-match heated exchange, the press conference and social media responses later, the back-and-forth between USA's Taylor Townsend and Lativa's Jelena Ostapenko remained a topic of conversation 24 hours later.After their fiery exchange in singles, they were involved in separate women's doubles matches on Thursday. Townsend and her partner, Katerina Siniakova, won theirs; Ostapenko and Barbora Krejcikova, lost theirs.On Wednesday, after Townsend's win over Ostapenko, they had an extended argument up at the net — and Townsend, who is Black, claims the 2017 French Open winner called her “uneducated” and lacking in "class" while wagging a finger.The locker room had myriad of things to say on the topic. Naomi Osaka said, “Obviously, it's one of the worst things you can say to a Black tennis player in a majority white sport. And granted, I know Taylor, and I know how hard she's worked, and I know how smart she is, so she's the furthest thing from uneducated or anything like that.”Coco Gauff tried to brush it off as "a heat-of-the-moment thing. I think Jelena was probably feeling emotions after she lost."Watch: What Jelena Ostapenko said to Taylor Townsend“I do think that that shouldn't have been said, regardless of how you're feeling. ... Knowing Taylor personally, she's the opposite of that. She's one of the nicest people that I've ever met," Gauff said. "Whenever I've had a tough moment on court, she's texting me, making sure, checking in on how I am. So I really hate to see that.”Ostapenko, who has had her share of off-court controversies in the past, didn't quite earn new admirers. “I don't think that's the craziest thing she's said. I'm going to be honest. I think it's ill timing and the worst person you could have ever said it to," continued Osaka. "And I don't know if (Ostapenko) knows the history of it in America. But I know she's never going to say that ever again in her life. ... It was just terrible. Like, that's just really bad."World No. 1 and defending US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka had come to Ostapenko's defence as the rare few people who spoke to the Latvian after the incident.“I spoke to Jelena after the match, but during our conversation I didn’t know what happened,” said Sabalenka. “I have to say that she’s nice, you know, but sometimes she can lose control. And she has some things in life to face and some struggles, so I was just trying to help her, and maybe face it in a more mature way.”Sinner marches on, Swiatek sweats in winReigning men's champion Jannik Sinner surged into the third round while Iga Swiatek was made to fight it out.Sinner overwhelmed Australia’s Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, extending his hard-court Grand Slam winning streak to 23 matches.The Italian top seed has started strong in his pursuit of becoming the first man to defend the US Open title since Roger Federer captured five consecutive crowns from 2004 to 2008.In the third round, Sinner is set to meet Canadian 27th seed Denis Shapovalov on Saturday.This season, he has reached the final at all three Grand Slams, winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon, with a loss to Carlos Alcaraz at the French Open in between.Meanwhile, Swiatek began play on Arthur Ashe Stadium by defeating the Netherlands’ Suzan Lamens 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.Swiatek appeared comfortable early, taking the first set with a break, but Lamens rallied to force a decider before the Pole closed it out."It wasn’t the easiest match. It got a bit complicated in the second set, but I’m happy that I could reset and start playing better in the third set," Świątek said.The 2022 US Open champion has won 16 of her last 17 matches, following titles at Wimbledon and Cincinnati. She next faces Russian 29th seed Anna Kalinskaya for a place in the last-16.Venus Williams wins in doublesWithout her younger sister by her side, Venus Williams showed that she’s still got it in doubles. Williams and Leylah Fernandez defeated the sixth-seeded duo Lyudmyla Kichenok and Ellen Perez 7-6 (4), 6-3, marking the 45-year-old's first doubles win in New York in more than a decade.She hadn’t won a women’s doubles match in New York since 2014, when she and Serena reached the quarterfinals, nor in any Grand Slam event since the 2018 French Open.After the match, the Williams delivered her signature twirl-and-wave and praised Fernandez, calling her “the best partner I ever played with — outside of Serena.” The 22-year-old Canadian even reminded Venus of Serena.“Our energy really matched each other in terms of determination, in terms of not giving up, in terms of staying focused and dialed in in everything,” Williams said. “That felt amazing because I never really played with a partner — outside of Serena, obviously — who had that kind of mentality, so it was really fun.”The crowd gave Williams and Fernandez a standing ovation after they claimed the opening tiebreaker despite trailing 5-2, and cheered again when the match ended in 90 minutes.Throughout the match, chants of “Here we go, Venus, here we go!” echoed, and a sign in the stands read, “Welcome to the Williams show.” And the show rages on.What else happened on Day 5 at the US Open?Third seed Alexander Zverev cruised to a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Britain's Jacob Fearnley, while Lorenzo Musetti eased past Belgium's David Goffin. Russian 15th seed Andrey Rublev defeated American wild card Tristan Boyer in four sets, advancing to a last-32 clash with Hong Kong's Coleman Wong. Wong, a 21-year-old qualifier, continued his New York fairytale with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win over Australian Adam Walton. The 173rd ranked Wong had already made history earlier in the week by becoming the first man from Hong Kong to win a Grand Slam singles match. Karen Khachanov, the Russian ninth seed, suffered a notable setback as he blew a two-set lead and lost to Poland's Kamil Majchrzak. He is the biggest casualty on the men's side.