WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 05: Coco Gauff of the United States returns a shot to Liudmila Samsonova … [+]
Before this week, Coco Gauff had never won a tournament on American soil.
In fact, the 19-year-old Floridian had only won three singles titles— and they all came overseas.
But on Sunday, the No. 7 player in the world captured her first U.S. title at the Mubadala Citi DC Open with a 6-2, 6-3 domination of No. 4 Maria Sakkari of Greece. Gauff didn’t drop a set en route to the title, which earned her $353,445 in price money.
It was just Gauff’s second victory over Sakkari in five meetings. Gauff won the title with Brad Gilbert in her player box. Gilbert, who coached Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, told Tennis Channel he will also help Gauff in Canada and Cincinnati in the lead-up to the U.S. Open which begins Aug. 28.
“I called it today and I stand by it, she will win a major,” former pro Andrea Petkovic said of Gauff on Tennis Channel.
Gauff won her second title of the season after winning the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand in January, defeating Spanish qualifier Rebeka Masarova 6-1, 6-1 in the final.
In the second set, Gauff broke for Sakkari 3-all and then served an ace to go ahead 4-3. She broke again for a 5-3 lead and then closed it out on her second match point with a backhand winner.
She then raised her arms to the crowd and did a little dance on the court as the crowd celebrated.
After losing in the first round of Wimbledon, Gauff linked up with Gilbert, a former world No. 4 who is the author of the fabled tennis book “Winning Ugly.”
“We have just started this week, and right now we have plans just for the week,” Gauff said of Gilbert. “I mean, obviously how things go, we may expand in future tournaments.
“Working with him has been great. I really didn’t know him that well other than the commentating, just a little bit seeing his past coaching performances, but those were before I was born.”
It’s hard to know exactly how much Gilbert will impact Gauff’s game, but she converted 6-of-10 break points and banged out seven aces against four double faults while winning 70% of first-serve points. Her forehand, which can sometimes break down, looked steady and penetrated the court. She made just 17 unforced errors in the match.
“Her serve saved her in many dangerous situations and that was just the narrative of the whole tournament,” Petkovic said. “[Gilbert] said they’ve been working on her return positions and I do credit that for her win today because she was trailing 1-4 in the head-to-head against Sakkari, and Coco’s return position really broke down Sakkari’s serve.”
The U.S. Open begins later this month and Gauff will look to continue to build momentum in Canada and Cincinnati.