Coco Gauff had high hopes after smashing Jabeur in the previous round but reality set in pretty quickly for the American as Swiatek crushed her in the opening set, finishing the job in the second.
Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff played plenty of times so far, with a couple of big matches happening this year as well. Gauff finally broke her losing streak against the then-number-one Swiatek in Cincinnati. The Polish player got her revenge at the China Open recently, an event which she won.
The first matches for both here were amazing. Swiatek overcame a somewhat complicated matchup against Vondrousova, while Gauff bested Jabeur easily. This one wasn't very competitive in the opening set. Much like the match in Beijing, it featured Swiatek smashing the ball really well from the baseline.
Her hitting was just amazing and there was very little Gauff could do against it. She tried staying in most rallies but couldn't posting 11 unforced errors in the opening set. That's far more than Swiatek's 6, and the score reflected that well 6-0.
Gauff had a bit more success in the second set as she created a bit of pressure on Swiatek. In response, Swiatek misfired a bit too much, which gave Gauff an early lead. For a while, she managed to keep the lead, but eventually, Swiatek's attacks proved too much.
She broke back after wasting a couple of break points earlier in the set but complicated things further by dropping her serve once more. She didn't have the control from the previous set but neither did Gauff. She served for the second set at 5-4, won the first point and then committed four consecutive double faults to get broken again.
That would be it from Gauff as Swiatek would finish the match in the next two wins. Not the prettiest match as the players combined 53 unforced errors in 18 games of play. Gauff's 7 double faults look particularly rough.
Final score: 6-0 7-5 Swiatek.
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