Coco Gauff kept her chances of advancing into the playoff portion of the WTA Finals alive with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Italy’s Jasmine Paolini on Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Gauff, who was sloppy in her loss to fellow American Jessica Pegula in their group-play opener on Sunday, had a much more dominant showing this time.
She converted 4 of 7 break points while saving 4 of the 5 she faced. Gauff had twice as many winners (14 to 7), 10 less unforced errors (30 to 40) and just three double faults, well less than the 17 she had vs. Pegula.
“I’m really happy with how I was able to turn it around,” said Gauff, the No. 3 seed. “Only three double faults — 17 is a big difference. It just shows I have the ability to serve like this. Just going back to the basics, trying not to overcomplicate things. I think maybe I might have served a little too hard in that match against Jess. So I just tried to slow it down.”
In a 2-2 deadlock in the second set, Gauff roared to the win by taking the next four games to clinch the match.
With the win, Gauff improves to 1-1 in the Stefanie Graf group, keeping her pursuit of a repeat title alive. Paolini (0-2) was eliminated with the loss.
In Tuesday’s other match, world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus outlasted Pegula for a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory to improve to 2-0 in the Graf group.
Sabalenka needed to grit her way to the victory after losing six of the final seven games in the second set and finding herself in a 1-2 hole in the deciding set after she was broken. She bounced back with an immediate break of her own, winning the next four games to move to the brink of victory.
“(Pegula) always pushes me to the limit,” Sabalenka said after the match. “In the second set, I felt like she stepped in and played incredible tennis. In the third set, I was thinking, ‘OK, I’m going to go after my shots, I’m going to stay even more aggressive and put all that speed back on her and hope I’ll get my chance.’ ”
Sabalenka had 28 winners with 44 unforced errors. She managed to convert just 12 of her 16 break-point chances, but got the two she needed in the third set.
In the final day of action for this group on Thursday, Sabalenka will face Gauff while No. 5 seed Pegula (1-1) takes on No. 8 Paolini. The top two players from each group advance to the semifinals.
–Field Level Media
