After cruising through her first match at the 2024 Dubai Championships, Coco Gauff faced a lot of obstacles in the second match, but she overcame all of them.
It was a pretty crazy match for the 19-year-old, but it was expected that it wouldn't be smooth sailing. Karolina Pliskova has been playing really strong tennis for a couple of weeks now, and she certainly gave the American everything she could handle.
The first set was not a good one as Gauff struggled greatly with the Czech player's game. There were always certain things that could bother her, and it showed, but the American outlasted her opponent in the end.
After dropping the opening set 2-6, Gauff played better in the second set. Not serving eight double faults certainly helped her as she calmed down, but she still had to outdo her opponent.
Pliskova had plenty of chances in the second one and used some of them but couldn't keep Gauff away from her own serve. The American didn't only have to deal with Pliskova but also the umpire with whom she clashed heavily at one point in the match.
They argued for a few minutes, and he denied her request for the supervisor as she wanted to double-check a ruling he had made. Still, she overcame all of that and won the second set 6-4 and then won the final set as well.
The final set was quite complicated as well, as she had to fend off multiple break points once more, but she did just that. The final score was 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 for the American, who is looking a lot better this week compared to last week in Doha.
In the quarterfinal, she will take on Anna Kalinskaya, who eliminated the ninth-seeded Jelena Ostapenko.
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