After playing several solid matches, Coco Gauff was stunned by a very solid Anna Kalinskaya in three sets at the 2024 Dubai Championships.
The Russian is one of those tennis players who likely would have hovered around the Top 10 if things were a bit different in her career. Tennis has rarely been a problem for her, as her health is the main thing holding her back.
Any time she puts together a string of good results, she seemingly faces some problems. This week at the WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai has been pretty good, though, as she won a couple of big matches.
The biggest, by far, is the most recent one against Gauff, which was a pretty strong performance. She played against a solid Gauff. It wasn't like the American was playing badly, but the Russian still came out on top.
The opening set was pretty strong from Gauff, who looked very comfortable against anything Kalinskaya was trying to do. The American won 6-2, but that would be about the last great thing she would do in this match.
Kalinskaya played much better as the match went on, but it still wasn't a clean match. The 19-year-old broke her opponent twice in that second set, but she was broken three times as well.
That was the problem, and it mostly came from not being able to handle Kalinskaya's baseline play. The Russian did a better job at outplaying Gauff from the baseline, and it made all the difference.
The final set highlighted that as well because the Russian saved all four break points she faced, while Gauff didn't save all of hers.
Kalinskaya would ultimately finish the match, winning it 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, which is a hugely impressive win for her and a semi-final matchup against Iga Swiatek. It was another bad loss for Gauff, but at least it wasn't a short week like the one in Doha.
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