(Tennis news) No.7 In the Western & Southern Open final, Coco Gauff upset No. 17 Karolina Muchova 6-3, 6-4 to win her second hard-court championship of the summer and third overall. Gauff, 19, is the competition’s youngest champion in history.
Gauff is the first kid to win three championships in a season since Bianca Andreescu in 2019. She previously won in Auckland in January and Washington, D.C., two weeks ago. Since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009, she is the only teenager to accumulate five championships in a career.
Gauff joins Serena Williams, Madison Keys, and Lindsay Davenport as the fourth American champion in Cincinnati since the tournament was revived in 2004. On Monday, she will move up one spot to No. 6 in the WTA rankings.
“I’m really happy with how I was able to manage this week,” Gauff said. “I got a huge win yesterday, a big one today. Karolina, she’s not an easy player. It’s really good to see her back at the top. I think she’s one of the most talented players on tour.”
Since No. 3 Jessica Pegula’s victory in Montreal last week, Americans have never swept the WTA 1000 events in Cincinnati and Canada. Since Serena Williams’ victories in Cincinnati and Wuhan in 2015, Americans haven’t taken home consecutive WTA 1000 titles.
Gauff has won 11 of her past 12 matches since losing in the first round of Wimbledon, winning the two biggest titles of her career in that time.
Gauff extended her career record to 5-1 in Hologic WTA Tour finals in their first encounter, overcoming a slow start to hold off Muchova’s attacking net game. Gauff consistently defended the baseline and limited Muchova to just four victories and 13 unforced errors in the first set.
After spending more than 10 hours on the court over the week, Muchova entered her maiden WTA 1000 final. All of her completed matches had gone the full three sets. The 26-year-old struggled to match Gauff’s vigour after putting out a two-and-a-half-hour effort to defeat No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals on Saturday.
“I was a little tired coming into the match,” Muchova said. “I knew I have to play fast today, not be in the rallies, because it’s been many three-setters here for me, long matches, tough matches. To play day after day and not have the day off, it’s very physical. In that, I was the worse one today.”
Nevertheless, Muchova’s entire fighting prowess was on display in the latter stages. Muchova fought valiantly to save three match chances in order to break and narrow the distance after Gauff secured a double-break advantage to serve out the victory at 5-2. She continued to hold serve after falling behind 0-30, forcing Gauff to finish the match.
The American did not flinch this time. After 1 hour and 56 minutes, Gauff maintained her lead week by holding at love. She is the first athlete to win her first four hard-court finals since Iga Swiatek. Her three victories put her in a tie for second place this season with No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka in terms of tournament victories. There are more just in Swiatek (4).
“Today I really won it off of breaking serve, to be honest,” Gauff said. “I wasn’t really serving as good as I did against Iga. I don’t know if it was nerves. I wasn’t that nervous, to be honest. Also a combination of the long match yesterday. I wasn’t serving as well.
“I think that’s what makes a champion, is how you’re doing on the days you aren’t feeling so great. I’m glad I was able to push through.”
Muchova will enter the Top 10 on Monday despite the defeat. Muchova, who started the season outside of the Top 150, has worked her way up the rankings, with a run to the French Open final and Cincinnati as high points. Since 2000, she has become the seventh Czech player to enter the Top 10.
“It’s always a thing that is in your mind when you play tennis, to make it to Top 10,” Muchova said. “It’s happening for me tomorrow, so that’s really nice result.”
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