18-year-old Catherine "Caty" McNally showed impressive fight as she came back from a set down to defeat no. 21 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in a second-round match that was delayed due to weather on Day 4. (Alexandrova was no doubt feeling confident coming into the contest too, having defeated former US Open champion Kim Clijsters in the previous round.) McNally is probably best-known as one half of the "McCoco" doubles team with Coco Gauff; as wild cards (and 17- and 15-year-olds, respectively), the pair upset the No. 9 seeds en route to a third round appearance in the women's doubles draw at the 2019 US Open.
But McNally is an impressive singles player, as well. She upset former US Open champion Sam Stosur in the first round of the Australian Open earlier this year, and has now earned her best-ever showing in women’s singles at a major.
Here’s more about the world No. 124.
She competed on the biggest stages, and on multiple surfaces, as a junior.
McNally was a three-time runner-up for three consecutive years at Wimbledon in the girls’ doubles tournament. Impressively, she played with two different partners during that time. In 2018, she also won the French Open girls’ doubles title (with Iga Swiatek, who has also punched her ticket to the third round of the 2020 US Open), finished runner-up in girls’ singles at the same tournament (losing to future doubles partner Gauff), and then went on to win the girls’ doubles title at the US Open (with Gauff).
She’s always been a fighter.
At the 2018 US Open junior girls’ tournament, McNally proved how tough a competitor she can be. Down a set in her Round 1 match, she got sick from the heat and threw up on court. She decided she could play on, won the set, then immediately went down a double break in the third, before storming back to win six games in a row to defeat her opponent.
A year later, competing in the women’s main draw and under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time, she flummoxed 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams with her all-court game, capturing the first set (and saving three break points as she served it out) before falling in three.
“For me, I just try to take it as another match, not really worry about who's across the net,” McNally told reporters at the time. “I know if I did that, it might affect the way I play, I might become more emotionally attached to the match. But I'm really just happy with the way I went out there and played my game. I tried to stick to my game throughout the whole time. I might have missed some shots here or there. I think if I keep working on that, it's going to pay off.”
She comes from a tennis family.
Her mom, Lynn, played for Northwestern University and also competed professionally, while her brother, John, was a standout junior in his own right and now competes for Ohio State.
She hails from The Queen City.
McNally is one of two athletes competing at the 2020 US Open who come from Cincinnati, Ohio. (The other is J.J. Wolf, who also advanced to the third round, in men’s singles.) McNally has shown that she is a true Cincinnatian by tweeting that she loves Skyline Chili, a local delicacy that many outsiders refuse to admit tastes good.