American teenager Coco Gauff charged to her second career WTA singles title at the Emilia-Romagna Open on yesterday, dispatching Wang Qiang, 6-1, 6-3 in the final in Parma.
No 3 seed Gauff needed just an hour and 14 minutes to turn back the challenge from the No 6 seed from China and add to her singles title collection, which she started as a lucky loser at 2019 Linz.
17-year-old Gauff has excelled on the clay courts in Italy over the past fortnight, with a semifinal run at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia last week leading into a romp to the trophy this week. Gauff dropped only one set en route to her title in Parma.
Currently ranked at a career-high World No 30 and projected to rise even higher after this victory, Gauff has won 20 of her last 26 matches on tour as she rapidly racks up match-wins this season. By contrast, she won 21 matches in 2019 and 2020 combined.
Gauff won over three-quarters of her first-service points and fended off each and every one of the four break points she faced in her first encounter with Wang.
Wang had a resurgent week in Parma, as the former World No 12 was just 4-11 on the year coming into the event. Wang broke through to her fifth career singles final – her first since 2018 – but was unable to win her third career title, and her first outside of her home country of China.
Gauff excelled from the backhand side as she surged to an early 3-0 lead in the encounter. Wang charged back from 0-30 down in the next game to hold her serve, but that would be it for the Chinese player in the opener, as Gauff regularly came out on top in increasingly lengthy rallies.
Serving for the set at 5-1, Gauff found herself down double break point after two consecutive double faults, but the American powered her way out of that jam with superb groundstrokes. She then fended off a third break point in that game before coming up with a service winner to obtain the one-set lead.
A backhand winner down the line allowed Gauff to save a break point and hold for 2-2 in the second set, and the teenager took charge after that close call, breaking for 3-2. Nevertheless, Wang’s groundstrokes were more accurate and hefty in the second set as she kept it closer than the first.
Still, it was Gauff who went untested on serve from that point forward, as she used an array of groundstroke winners to slide to a 5-3 lead. Another beautiful backhand forced an error from Wang to end the match, and Gauff ended the day with 21 winners to Wang’s 11.
Gauff made a clean sweep of the titles in Parma, as she paired with Caty McNally to win the doubles final later in the afternoon.
The 4th-seeded team of Gauff and McNally defeated No.2 seeds Darija Jurak and Andreja Klepac, 6-3, 6-2 to win the doubles championship.
Ruud champ
Third seed Casper Ruud was rock-solid in the Gonet Geneva Open final as he took down Denis Shapovalov 7-6(6), 6-4 for his second ATP Tour title.
The Norwegian has been in impressive form throughout the clay-court swing, arriving in Geneva on the back of three consecutive semi-finals at Monte-Carlo, Munich and Madrid.
In Geneva, Ruud dropped only one set en route the championship match against fellow 22-year-old #NextGenATP alumnus Shapovalov, who was also seeking his second tour-level title.
Ruud edged through a tightly contested opening set that was defined by strong serving and no break points on offer. Shapovalov dropped only one point (15/16) behind his first serve and won 94 per cent of those points, while Ruud dominated the second serve, winning 91 per cent (10/11) before they went into the tie-break.
When the opening finally came for Ruud, he capitalised right away. Taking advantage of only his second look at a Shapovalov second serve in the set, Ruud unloaded on the return and jammed Shapovalov at the net to earn an error for a 4/2 lead.
From 2/6 down, the Canadian fought back to save four set points and bring them level in the decider. But Ruud got himself out of trouble with an ace – one of four he struck in the match – before Shapovalov dumped a volley into the net to seal the set.
After such a high-quality opening set, a second-set letdown was inevitable – but Ruud kept his level high as the Canadian’s first-serve percentage eventually dropped off, giving his opponent the opening he needed.
Ruud was right there to keep Shapovalov under pressure, and earned the first break opportunities of the match in the decisive 2-2 game. Shapovalov held firm during the marathon game, saving four break points, but couldn’t hold back the Norwegian as he converted his fifth. Ruud served out the victory after an hour and 43 minutes.
Ruud improved to an ATP Tour-leading 32 clay-court wins in 2020-21, ahead of Stefanos Tsitsipas (26) and Cristian Garin (25). Shapovalov was seeking his second ATP Tour title in his third final appearance, after improving to 2-10 in semi-final matches with a victory over Pablo Cuevas.
Norway’s Casper Ruud raises the trophy after winning the ATP 250 Geneva Open yesterday.