At the age of 17, Coco Gauff of Delray Beach, Florida has had some mighty impressive wins throughout her career to date on hard court and grass. However, on Thursday, the American phenom raised eyebrows for her exceptional performance on clay.
In the third round of the Italian Open, Gauff came through with a mighty impressive victory, as she upset the seventh-seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 7-5, 6-3. Sabalenka was the player who made tennis headlines a week ago, when she beat Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, 6-0, 3-6, 6-4, in the final of the Madrid Open.
Gauff’s first WTA clay-court win just came this past September, when she beat Ons Jabeur of Tunisia in the first round of Rome, 6-4, 6-3. That was followed by an upset win over ninth-ranked Australian native and British national Johanna Konta, 6-3, 6-3 in the first round of the 2020 French Open. Then in April, Gauff reached the quarterfinals of the Volvo Car Open in Charleston, the most prestigious clay-court tournament in the United States. There she beat 2010 Wimbledon semifinalist Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria, 6-3, 6-0, in the first round, Liudmila Samsonova of Russia 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the second round, and American Lauren Davis 6-2, 7-6 in the third round, before losing to Jabeur 6-3, 6-3 in the quarterfinals.
Gauff did compete last week in Madrid, but lost 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 to the 2016 United States Open finalist and sixth seed, Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic. Prior to Gauff’s win over Sabalenka on the Italian dirt, she beat Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of Rome, and then Maria Sakkari of Greece, 6-1, 1-6, 6-1 in the second round. Ironically, the player Gauff has next in the quarterfinals is Barty, the world number one.
There is no doubt that Gauff’s game is coming into form and that she will be a dangerous player at the French Open at the end of the month. The win over Sabalenka, who is a clay-court specialist, should give her immense confidence.
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