Coco Gauff had a sensational start to the season as she destroyed one opponent after another to claim her first WTA title since May 2021.
The 18-year-old American certainly wasn't satisfied with how her 2022 season ended. She lost nine consecutive sets in singles as she lost all of her matches at the WTA Finals and then also couldn't help her country at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals. But she managed to turn that bad luck around in 2023 and start with a bang.
Her journey at the 2023 ASB Classic in Auckland started against the 2022 Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria. The American easily beat her, and then she also defeated her compatriot and 2020 Australian Open champion, Sofia Kenin.
Then, she defeated Lin Zhu and Danka Kovinic in a dominant fashion, and she even had time to jump from the tower in Auckland.
In the final, it was yet another dominant performance by the young American, as she took on Rebeka Masarova from Spain, a player ranked no. 130 and coming from qualifying.
Gauff was the first player to face a break point already in the third game, but after she avoided getting broken, she broke her opponent two times and eventually won the first set 6-1.
In the second set, the American started with a break and again added one more in the fifth game to grab a 4-1 lead. On the other hand, her opponent struggled with converting break points into breaks.
Masarova had ten break points in the match, the same as her opponent, but never managed to break Gauff, and that's why the world no. 7 won in an hour and 18 minutes, 6-1, 6-1.
After the event, Gauff will stay 7th in the WTA Rankings, while her opponent will enter the Top 100 for the first time in her career as she will move up by 36 places to no. 94.
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