Coco Gauff had a terrible Qatar Open experience, so many expect her to come back with fire at the 2024 Dubai Championships, which might be bad news for Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
The last time Gauff competed was last week at the Qatar Open in Doha. She faced Katerina Siniakova and surprisingly lost, which was a huge shock to everybody.
It was mostly a shock because she dominated Siniakova easily in all of their previous matches. She did the same early in the second set of the Doha match but then lost six games in a row to go from 4-0 to 4-6, which lost her the match.
It was a very odd match, her worst in many ways in recent months, but she's seemingly over it, admitting to the media in Dubai that she's ready for this event and isn't thinking about that as a "bad day."
It won't be much easier because Cocciaretto has a profile similar to Siniakova's. She, too, is a baseliner, though of a bit different profile, which will likely benefit the American.
Head-to-head:
They only played once so far, but it was a very interesting match, which showed us how the matchup likely goes. Gauff won in two sets, which is expected, but she barely won the opening set as Cocciaretto managed to fight well.
She's an aggressive baseliner capable of moving opponents around the court, and as quick as Gauff is, it's not about moving around. It's about putting her in a bad position, especially if she has to go to her forehand, which is still shaky.
Prediction:
Backhand is fine, but the forehand can be exploited, which is likely to happen here. I don't think it will be enough to win the match, but I do think this might be a very tricky one for the American. I still think she pulls through in two.
Prediction: Coco Gauff to win in two sets.
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