Coco Gauff never dropped serve in the 74-minute final against Wang Qiang to win her second career title on the clay courts of the Emilia-Romagna Open in Italy.
Playing the WTA 250 tournament on a career-high ranking of No.30, which will further improve next week, the 17-year-old Gauff won 76% of her first-service points and saved all the four break points she faced to beat Wang 6-1 6-3 in the final and add to her singles title collection that was initiated two years ago in Linz.
Gauff’s week in Parma started with a tight first-round match against Kaia Kanepi, as the teenager fended off set points in both sets to edge the Estonian in two tiebreaks. The American then eased past Camila Giorgi and Amanda Anisimova to reach her second career semifinal on clay. In the semifinal against Katerina Siniakova, Gauff dropped a set for the first time this week before prevailing.
The young WTA star’s impressive rise is now witnessed in the fact that she’s won 20 main-draw matches this year, while she’s won a total of 21 matches in 2019 and 2020 combined.
Right after the singles final, Gauff returned to the court to clinch the doubles title with Caty McNally. The fourth-seeded team defeated second seeds Darija Jurak and Andreja Klepac 6-3 6-2. (photo: Jimmie48)
Coco has steadily been improving over the first few months of 2021, especially on the clay. She still needs to work on those second serves and avoid the double faults, but she has a lot of savvy on the court and goes to plan B if her game is not working. I would not want to play her in the early rounds of Roland Garros.