Coco Gauff overcame a battle with the participant who turned out to be her nemesis.
For the third consecutive yr, the American took the court docket on the season finale of the WTA Finals to face Earlier world. Primary Iga Swiatek, a girl with an 11-1 file in opposition to her.
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Nevertheless, this time it was Gauff who shone, overcoming a difficult encounter to file a 6-3, 6-4 victory of their Orange Group match.
It was a major victory on a number of ranges.
Firstly, it implies that with one match to spare he has reached the semi-finals of the $15 million season-ending match in Saudi Arabia.
Secondly, it ends a streak of 4 consecutive defeats in opposition to the Pole, two of which got here this yr. In reality, it represents solely a second victory in opposition to Swiatek for Gauff, who beat the four-time Grand Slam champion within the semifinal on her solution to the title in Cincinnati final yr.
Gauff confirmed flashes of brilliance to outlast her opponent in a gripping battle, however each gamers struggled with their serves and made a sequence of unforced errors.
Swiatek needed to work arduous within the early exchanges, and the Polish star saved three break factors in her second service sport, which lasted greater than 10 minutes.
Gauff continued to use stress and broke quickly after to take a 4-3 lead within the first set.
The American then held her personal serve and broke once more to take the set 6-3 in 49 minutes.
At first of the second, Gauff saved two break factors, a place she discovered herself in because of three double faults, to maintain the momentum going.
However frustration shortly took maintain and three extra disastrous double faults in a row in her subsequent service sport led the 20-year-old to interrupt her racket on the court docket and provides her opponent a break.
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Ultimately, Gauff regained management and held serve to like, earlier than breaking for the ultimate time to take the set 6-4.
“If I stayed stable, I knew I had an opportunity to shut out the match,” Gauff mentioned afterward, admitting that the tennis was “sloppy” at occasions.
She added that she was pleased with the resilience she confirmed in getting over the road in a troublesome match.
Coming into their match, Gauff had misplaced 11 of 12 matches in opposition to the five-time Grand Slam champion.
However a lot of his head-to-head file so far might be attributed to age and expertise.
The American is three years youthful and when Swiatek was her age, like Gauff, she solely had one main title to her title.
A powerful victory exhibits that Gauff is in type on the excellent time after a troublesome 2024 and advances to the quarter-finals of the WTA Finals with a gaggle match to spare.
The 20-year-old is trying to win the match for the primary time in her profession, after being eradicated within the semi-finals in 2023.
She’s going to face Barbora Krejcikova on Thursday, trying to safe first place within the group and a quarterfinal showdown with both Qinwen Zheng or Jasmine Paolini.
