Coco Gauff continued her tremendous run, earning win number 15 after beating Veronika Kudermetova at the 2023 China Open.
Kudermetova has been in spectacular form lately, with a lot of good matches and a title run last week in Toyko at a WTA 500 event. She bested Gauff's doubles partner Jessica Pegula in the final, and the American took revenge against Kudermetova, though it wasn't the cleanest of wins.
Many expected a really close affair, considering how well both have played lately, and that certainly was the case in the opening set. It ended in a tiebreak after neither player could create much separation in the first six games of the match.
Gauff held an early lead 3-0 but allowed the Russian to not only battle back but also take the lead 5-4. Kudermetova had set points as she was up 40-0 in that game, but Gauff battled back to save herself. She would end up outplaying Kudermetova in the tiebreak 7-5, which was a huge momentum shift for the American.
The match completely changed after that tiebreak as Kudermetova fell apart and simply couldn't stop Gauff, who was flying around the court. The American took an early break, which became a double break lead, and that was pretty much it.
Kudermetova had not enough to mount a comeback and Gauff easily cruised after that. A pretty crazy match considering how the Russian basically almost won the set only for Gauff to mount a superb comeback and completely turn around the match. It was an impressive display of resilience and calmness which she didn't really have much in the past.
Five months ago this would have been an easy loss for Gauff and it just shows her growth. The final score was 7-6(5) 6-2 as she moved on to face either Maria Sakkari or native player Xinyu Wang in the quarter-final.
0 Comments