Coco Gauff vs Iva Jovic - Preview & Prediction - 2026 US Open Round 4

0:00Hey guys and welcome back to the channel. We have CocoGoth versus Eva Yovic for the Ram and 16 matchup at the 2026 US Open. Should be a very interesting matchup they've played only the one time before. And we've got two young superstars. CocoGoth has already won two Grand Slams at only 22 years of age. And we've got 18 year old Eva Yovic looking to make a court final here at the US Open. Both players have, I think for Goth it's been relatively plain sailing. There has been a dip in form though in the most recent match I'd say. But generally speaking she's handled business. For Eva Yovic, she was handling business until she came up against a very close friend, Alex Ayala, 1000 incredibly close match, arguably the match of the tournament so far. But she managed to get through it. And she said post-match that it took everything she had to actually get over the finish line there. She was a breakdown, the final set managed to somehow recover, break back and then break at five, six down. Sorry, five, six, five ups or even on Ayala's serve

1:00to break and then take that match in pretty scintillating fashion. This is going to be a very tough match for the young American. I think the style that Goth has and I would have said this about Alex or Eva by the way, because I think both players, I don't think they match up that well against Coco's style. And I'll explain why in a second. Before we do get into the detail though, if you do enjoy this video, do hit that like button, comment below who you think is going to win and why and also do subscribe if you're new. We're going to have a whole host of US Open content coming your way throughout the tournament. And also leave a rating review if you're listening to a podcast platform. Okay, so you have just played Frec Jones and then Ayala on that one in three sets of the other two in straights. For Goth, she'll be Sonmez in straight sets, Badosa in straights and books in straights as well. Sonmez and Badosa, I think they were difficult first and second rounds respectively. Badosa played well in that second round, but Goth just managed to weather the storm. 6476, pretty solid display from the American.

2:01For Goth, last match was a bit of an interesting one. She was struggling in our second set. She was a break up in the first take up broken bag. It was three all managed to then take that set. She was struggling quite a bit in this match. I just not really finding her rhythm, only 49% of firsts I was in, 1A6 double folds. The double folds really have stayed up bay for the most part. I don't know if she's hit more than six double folds in any match so far, this tournament, but there was just something about the way she was playing. The forehand was looking, so I'm gonna look a little bit janky, which is not great. It's what really hard on her game, the forehand, the serve, just generally button those out because she's an incredible athlete. We know offensively she's so good, generally shot tolerances through the roof, but there are moments of course when the forehand has broken down and I think that did happen at times against books. Which is an interesting thing to witness. It could be an isolated event where, you know, fine, it happening in this book, so it won't happen again throughout the whole tournament.

3:01I almost feel that Yovic needs to rely on Gough not playing well to have a chance of winning this match up, because Yovic still not the finished art school at 18. No, a nearer. Gough at 22 is also not the finished art school, but she's at least closer, I think, to it and she has a lot more experience as well to lean on. She's been on tour for seven years, which is just incredible to even think about. But for Eva, there's a few things she needs to do. She needs to serve incredibly well. I think she's got a pretty solid service action. I think it's going to end up being quite a powerful and explosive serve. Which has been hitting four, five aces in every match. First serve, win percentage is pretty good. Against Eale, it was difficult because Eale is a top three return on tour. I'll set the moment so there's 17 breaks of serve in that match, so I feel that's probably not the best one to look at. Gough is also a very good returner, but a different style of returner. She won't be hyper aggressive like Eale on return. She'll make, but she'll make a lot more returns argue than Eale. With a lot of depth and she'll get herself

4:02into those points and that is a different type of pressure that Eva will feel compared to what she did against Eale. That's for sure. There will be longer points. Gough will stand the points. She'll make you physical and I do wonder after that match against Eale, will Yovic feel a little bit fatigued? She shouldn't, still arguing the tournament. And if she's at her best and fully fit, well, in Rome, they, the tight one, Gough 101, 57, 75, 62, that was this year. It wasn't clay at different surface and I think the quicker surface does help Gough out because it just gives her a bit more through the court with the forehand, the backhand as well, which is incredibly solid. And on serve, she gets a bit more zip. For Yovic, she likes to try and dictate Raleigh. She's got very good tennis IQ and I think she's going to have to try and make Gough feel uncomfortable on the forehand wing. But the only way to do that is to go backhand first, trying, I think was quite keen what I saw her do against Eale was find these short angled backhands.

5:04I think that's a really good play against Gough. Gough will get to those balls, no doubt. But she's not going to go for broke on that backhand cross or line. And what that does is it, it leaves the forehand wing open for Yovic to go either backhand line or forehand cross into that open space with Joby Hoping, a lot of pace and depth and a lot of quality. And that's when the Gough forehand come break down, either through an error or potentially a much shorter ball which Yovic should be as take advance, Jov. That doesn't necessarily mean the points hers because Gough is an incredible defender and that's where it gets very tricky because Gough will make you play one, two, three extra shots. It's not as easy as just, oh yeah, I have some open space and I saw this against Buxer. Buxer is an incredible half-folly drop shot coming forward after a good forehand. Gough was maybe three meters behind the baseline. She's still managed to get there and his scrum would for it and Buxer made the error trying to pass Gough.

6:05But Gough actually used her hand, her left hand when retrieving that ball to keep her balance and get up so she would be ready to then go again. She is an unreal half-folly, I think, up three for sure on tour. She could arguably be the quickest on tour as well. She is very tough to hit through so you need to be quite crafty, disrupt her rhythm. I think Yovic would need to do that. The backhand slice is not a bad player as well but she needs to be knife in her backhand slice. It can't be floaty and I think that Angle is gonna be key. She needs to serve well and then on return as well. Be aggressive on the Gough second serve because if she's aggressive on the Gough second serve, if forces Gough to have to go for more on that second serve and that's when the double force might filter in, also if Gough is playing a bit safe on the first serve, if Yovic is able to be aggressive on that and win some of those points early on, that then forces Gough to say, okay, I need to go for more on that first serve which means she then has to hit.

7:06More second serve because most likely she's going to miss more first serves and then of course you have that domino effect, right? And that can also put pressure on Coco's serve. So Eva's a very talented and intelligent player but Gough, I think that I just threw the roof. We've seen that, there's a reason she's won two Grand Slam's. I think it's a very, very tough matchup on paper for Eva. I'm going to say Gough, I think he'll be straight sets. I think there'll be a tight set in there but I just think it's too much for Eva to handle right now on this surface in this event personally. If he's an incredible talent, give her a year or two and I think we're talking about a very different matchup. But right now I think Gough gets the win. Let me know in the comments what you think of why. Thanks very much guys, stay safe from our, we'll see you next video.