Gauff advanced to her first WTA 1,000 title

After remaining one step away from glory at Roland Garros 2022, Coco Gauff, considered at 19 years old to be the great asset of American tennis for the next decade, stepped forward this Sunday and won the first WTA 1,000 title in Cincinnati. her young career, by winning the final against Czech Karolina Muchova 6-3, 6-4.

Gauff, number seven in the world ranking, needed one hour and 56 minutes to beat Muchova, number 17, and won her third title of the season, after Auckland and Washington.

The American player, who now has five titles to her credit, brought this tournament back to her country for the first time since 2019, when Madison Keys won it.

She became the first player under the age of twenty to win five titles since Danish Caroline Wozniacki in 2008 and upset Muchova, a finalist this year at Roland Garros, in the first meeting between the two.

Despite the loss, the Czech player will be number 10 in the world starting this Monday, the best position of his career. He closed a tournament in which he was on the track for almost twelve hours (Gauff was only a little over eight) and in which he managed to beat the Greek María Sakkari and the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.

Gauff was the winner in a match marked by irregularity in both players’ serves.

There are up to eleven ‘break’ balls in the first set. Gauff got six and Muchova five, but the American was more successful when it came to converting them.

His three breaks, which ended in the eighth game, allowed him to take the first set 6-3 in 44 minutes.

Both Gauff and Muchova came from a very demanding semifinal, where they spent almost three hours on the track to win respectively against Polish Iga Swiatek and Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.

And the second set maintained that intensity, with long games, eight out of ten reaching forty even, where small details made the difference.

Gauff canceled two break points at 1-2 in the light and then got two consecutive ‘breaks’ which allowed him to serve for the game at 5-3.

It was at that moment that the American paid off the tension. She played a bad turn to serve and Muchova recovered one of the two breaks. However, he stepped on the accelerator again in the next game and sealed the match in the final 6-4.

Gauff will be coming into the US Open full of enthusiasm, which starts in New York on August 28 and ends on September 10. Last year, the American reached the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows.

The men’s final will be played this Sunday between Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, number one in the world, and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic.

Earlier, Argentines Máximo González and Andrés Molteni were declared champions of the doubles tournament by winning the final against British Jamie Murray and New Zealander Michael Venus.