Gauff, 18, also sung the praises of Australian Nick Kyrgios in her press-conference Friday at Flushing Meadows. The teenage star recalled multiple times at the Miami Open, where despite Kyrgios already being on court for hours, the Australian chose to hit with her.

The first encounter came when she was 13 years old. Kyrgios, who just completed a practice session, stuck around to hit with the rising American star for approximately 30 minutes. The following year, Gauff was even more shocked when Kyrgios concluded a gruelling two-hour practice with Frances Tiafoe and despite thinking he would call it a day at the office, the Aussie continued practising with Gauff for an extra hour.

“I know there’s things on the court that he does that people don’t agree with. I probably don’t agree with some things,” Gauff said. “But it’s just things like [hitting with a young kid] that stands out for me. That’s why I feel like I can never dislike him because constantly when I see him around, he’s always saying hello.

“It’s just moments like that that people don’t really see about him. So I think people paint him as a bad guy. I feel around the grounds, at least my experience of him, he’s not.”

Gauff attests to those experiences with Kyrgios as part of her progression as a teenager, adding that the World No. 25 even offered a word of encouragement about her game.

“I think in the end it helped me in the long run as a player hitting with him,” she said. “He told me good things about my game. At that time I’m like, ‘Nick Kyrgios thinks I’m a good player.’ You start to believe that and gain confidence in that.”

Little did Kyrgios know that the young teen he was pracitising with would someday share the largest tennis venue in the world, Arthur Ashe Stadium, with him in the fourth round of the season’s final Slam. On Sunday, both Gauff and Kyrgios look to advance to the quarter-finals at the US Open. The Aussie meets World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in a blockbuster match Sunday night, and according to Gauff, she will be a lifetime supporter of Kyrgios.

“If he keeps it up, I think he can go far. He can win the tournament. We all know he has the ability to. He was close at Wimbledon. I always, always root for him, no matter who he’s playing, to be honest,” Gauff said.

Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios may have been rivals on the singles court earlier this week at the US Open, but their ‘Special Ks’ doubles partnership is showing little sign of slowing down in New York.

The Australian duo raised its game at crucial moments to defeat Yoshihito Nishioka and Andre Goransson 6-4, 7-6(3) on Saturday and advance to the third round on tournament debut at the hard-court Grand Slam. Kyrgios and Kokkinakis did not face a break point and won 85 per cent (39/46) of points behind their first serves to wrap a 84-minute win that improved their team record at majors this year to 8-0.

Kyrgios defeated Kokkinakis in the first round of the US Open singles on Tuesday. The Australian pair lifted its maiden Grand Slam title together at the Australian Open in January and its next assignment in New York is a third-round meeting against 11th seeds Harri Heliovaara and Lloyd Glasspool.

Also on Saturday, second seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski held their nerve to overcome home favourites Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4. Koolhof and Skupski, who lead the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings after lifting six tour-level titles in 2022, next face Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell. The Wimbledon champions also downed an American duo, Robert Galloway and Alex Lawson, 6-2, 6-2.

The 2019 champions Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah kept their bid for a second US Open crown alive but were made to work overtime for a second-round win by Diego Hidalgo and Fabien Reboul. Cabal and Farah won four fewer points than their opponents in a three-hour, 23-minute epic but prevailed 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 7-6(10-7) to book a third-round appointment with Tim Puetz and Michael Venus. The fourth-seeded German-New Zealand duo beat Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral 6-4, 7-6(3).

Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic wasted no time booking their third-round spot. The 2020 finalists eased past home wild card pairing Nicholas Godsick and Ethan Quinn 6-1, 6-3 in just 56 minutes.

When Karen Khachanov was a kid, he did more than train to become a professional tennis player. The Moscow-native swam, played basketball and participated in athletics.

But from ages 10-11, he also attended chess class. Instead of blasting forehands and crushing backhands, Khachanov learned to outmanoeuvre opponents on a 64-square board, where no physical power or foot speed could help him.

“[In chess] you need to think all the time. You have 100 different combinations and variations with each move. It always depends which figure your opponent will move. There always has to be some tactics and for sure it’s a mental game as well,” Khachanov said. “You need to stay sometimes three, four hours in a competition if we’re talking about professional chess to sweat it out and try to think about one move [for] maybe 30 minutes.

“You break your head and that’s the really interesting part of the chess game.”

Some see Khachanov’s power from the baseline and miss the tactics he uses to position himself for his biggest shots. In a way, he believes all the thinking that goes into the sport makes it similar to chess.

“I think there are some similarities because you always think about what type of shot you can do, tactics are one of the most important things in tennis as well,” Khachanov said. “[It is about] where you place a shot, how hard, how high, percentage of the serves, where you’re going to stay, where you’re going to return and all those things. Of course they matter. It’s not that simple I would say, but there are some similarities.”

Khachanov does not constantly follow professional chess tournaments, but he is plenty familiar with the biggest stars in the chess world like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. He also watched The Queen’s Gambit, which he called “one of the nicest TV shows I remember on Netflix”.

One of his coaches, Jose Manuel ‘Pepo’ Clavet, is also a chess fan. When they are together, they play two or three games per day.

“I think [I play chess] the same way I am in tennis,” Khachanov said, cracking a laugh. “I try to be the same way.”

Khachanov is also a basketball fan, who attends NBA games when he can, like he did earlier this year during the Miami Open presented by Itau. The 26-year-old was a big fan of the Miami Heat when he was younger, watching LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh lead the team to glory. He is a big fan of James, which has led him to follow the Los Angeles Lakers more closely, although he is still a Heat fan.

“I think the way he is, the mentality that he has in the sport, what he [has] achieved already. He’s one of the best athletes. Let’s say [he is like] Cristiano in soccer, Messi in soccer, him, Jordan… like Rafa, Novak and Roger in tennis,” Khachanov said. “He’s one of the best basketball players. I think the way he stays motivated and is still looking forward to play at his best and is still scoring the way that he does, it’s tough to explain sometimes.”

On the court, Khachanov has been one of the most consistent players on the circuit in recent years. Since August 2018, he has been lodged in the Top 35 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings without falling from that group.

“Sometimes you just look forward to being better. Sometimes you can be worse as well, so in a way I never look back and think I’m Top 20, Top 30, Top 35. I always look forward to achieving my goals and try to move forward,” Khachanov said. “I always think of how I can improve to rise up in the rankings, to be back in the Top 10. This is the ultimate goal I have. I’m working every day to try to find out what I need [to do], what I can do better.”

Khachanov reached his career-high of World No. 8 in July 2019 after winning the Rolex Paris Masters, an ATP Masters 1000 event, the November before.

But one of his most impressive performances came in a loss. At the 2018 US Open, Khachanov pushed Rafael Nadal to the limit in a four-hour, 23-minute loss over four sets.

“I always am thinking about New York. It’s one of my favourite Slams, I would say, especially Arthur Ashe Stadium. The match against Rafa that I played in 2018, the emotions, the adrenaline, it is one of the good ones to remember,” Khachanov said. “That’s why coming back to New York I always want to do well.”

It is performances like those that make Khachanov confident on court. The 27th seed still believes he can compete with anyone on his best day.

“That’s a very important thing, first of all to believe in yourself, to believe in your abilities, what you can do when you play at your best, where you can be and which players you can beat, how far you can go. That’s obviously one of the mental parts, [the] self-belief that you can do well,” Khachanov said. “You can go out there and still lose a match and there is no shame in losing it. It’s the belief that you can go deep and win it all. That’s what it takes and that’s a really important part of my game and tennis in general.”

To Khachanov, his game is like a puzzle made of components, with some related to his physical tools and others to the mental side of the sport.

“All those parts are really important to put together,” Khachanov said. “[With them] I can achieve what I’m dreaming of.”

The next step in achieving those dreams will be to defeat Montreal champion Pablo Carreno Busta on Sunday at Flushing Meadows.

Cameron Norrie maintained his perfect record at this year’s US Open on Saturday, overcoming #NextGenATP Dane Holger Rune 7-5, 6-4, 6-1 to reach the fourth round in New York for the first time.

The seventh-seeded Briton defeated Benoit Paire and Joao Sousa in straight sets in his opening two matches and looked in control again against Rune. Norrie fired 22 winners, struck his groundstrokes consistently and soaked up the 19-year-old’s heavy-hitting to advance after two hours and 13 minutes.

“Holger is not easy. He can go through patches where he is playing pretty passively and then he hits aggressively, so you have to be ready for anything,” Norrie said. “He has great hands and defends really well at times. I think I stayed a lot calmer than he did throughout the big moments in the match.

“My goal today was to get to two hours and then start the match from then. When it hit two hours I broke to go 2-1 in the third and I pointed to Facu and said, ‘Now the match starts’…I feel great.”

The 26-year-old has improved to 3-0 in his ATP Head2Head series against Rune, having defeated the Munich champion in Cincinnati last month. Norrie, who is making his sixth appearance at the hard-court major, will next play ninth seed Andrey Rublev or 19th seed Denis Shapovalov.

Norrie arrived in New York in good form after he advanced to the semi-finals in Cincinnati, where he lost to eventual champion Borna Coric. The four-time tour-level titlist is up to No. 11 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin as he looks to finish the season strongly and qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals in November.

In a tight first set, Norrie recovered from squandering two set points at 5-3 and a break advantage as he regained his focus to eventually clinch the opener after 49 minutes when Rune hit a forehand long. The seventh seed forced the Dane into errors in the second set with his watertight groundstrokes before he committed just one unforced error in the third set to race away to victory.

Rune, who is fourth in the Pepperstone Live Race To Milan, was aiming to reach the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the second time after he enjoyed a dream run to the quarter-finals at Roland Garros in June.