Seed No.24 Coco Gauff of the United States squeezed past Serbian qualifier Aleksandra Krunic 7-6(11) 6-4 to make the second round of the 2021 French Open.
The world No.213 Krunic was the first to go up a break in the first set, but Gauff broke right back to 3-3 and the set progressed into a tiebreak. When Gauff raced to a 5-1 lead in the tiebreak, it seemed like it was a done deal, but Krunic won five points in a row and earned a set point at 6-5. In a thrilling tiebreak that went back and forth, Krunic wasted four set points, while Gauff converted her third to finally take the set in 82 minutes.
Note that Krunic hit nine aces to Gauff’s one in the first set. They were both bad at break point conversions, but Gauff was horrible with just one out of 11, while Krunic converted one out of four.
After edging the first set, Gauff was on a momentum and stormed to a 4-0 lead in the second set. The 28-year-old Krunic once again stayed competitive, won three games in a row to go to 3-4 and then even had a break point to level to 5-5. Luck was on Gauff’s side in crucial moments and the American triumphed just moments after being threatened with a break.
In the second round, Gauff will face Wang Qiang of China. (photo: Jimmie48)
I watched this match. Great fight from both players! That was an awesome tiebreak.
Jim, I wrote Krunic off when she was 5-1 down in the first set, but she amazingly managed to recover and it was a shame when she couldn’t close it out in the tiebreak. In the second set she also had a chance after a big deficit. It was an entertaining match overall.
There are 64 women singles matches and why do you need cover Coco Gauff’s story? So far I am not amazed with her accomplishment, the only 1 achievement that she did that considered good was beating Osaka back in 2019 AO, and that was ancient history ago!
Why didnt you cover Kalinina who beat Kerber, someone who prevented her from career grand slam?
Or battle of slam champions in the 1st rd (Kenin vs Ostapenko or Vika vs Kuznetsova).
Ric, I am amazed by Coco’s accomplishments so far. Plus, I am from Serbia, so I watched the match because of Krunic. Nevertheless, I completely agree with your point in this comment. I am the only person writing this blog and it is hard for me to be able to cover all important matches happening at Grand Slams, especially in early rounds. I watched Azarenka vs. Kuznetsova, for example, but I didn’t get to write about it as I was doing some other things. I would love to be able to cover all the important stories, but that is not possible all the time.
Plus, I enjoy covering off-court stories as well. So I often have 10 article ideas in a day, but I manage to write just several. I sometimes feel frustrated that I can’t discuss all the stories that I’d like to.
I understand Marija, to be honest its because of personal reason that I am against of Coco’s being in the spotlight too much, I don’t think she has accomplished anything worthwhile. She hasnt accomplished anything in her young age that we havent seen before. I believe players like Seles, Hingis, Williams, Sharapova already won bigger tournaments when they were Coco’s age (maybe younger).
So I just thought covering other mouth watering 1st round matches were more appropriate.
I apologize if I sounded harsh earlier Marija, regardless I love reading your blog everyday. I just don’t like the Coco story (unless she loses).
Ric, don’t worry. I understand. I just did my best to explain my situation and perspective. You’re right that what Coco has done is way less than the players you mentioned, but now the game and times are different and a lot of players achieve their best results in their 30s, so Coco does stand out with her game and results as a teenager.