U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff double-faulted 4 times in a row whereas serving for the second set and wound up dropping 6-0, 7-5 to four-time main title winner Iga Swiatek in round-robin motion at the WTA Finals on a windy Wednesday evening.
“A tough day in the office for me,” stated Gauff, who additionally misplaced a doubles match Wednesday. “I mentally didn’t stay in it when I was serving for it.”
She stated the wind did not assist issues, nor did a current break of about two weeks with out serving due to a shoulder harm.
“I have done well throughout the year, serving well,” the third-seeded Gauff stated, “so I’m not going to let … (a) bad two games define how I serve.”
There have been loads of empty seats at the non permanent onerous courtroom — and Swiatek observed.
“It’s a shame that we don’t have a full stadium,” she stated afterward.
(*4*) the second-seeded Swiatek stated.
The WTA’s determination to host the occasion in Cancun was not introduced till September.
In the different singles match on Day 4 at the season-ending championship — which is for the prime eight gamers in girls’s tennis — three-time main runner-up Ons Jabeur defeated Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 6-4, 6-3. Jabeur misplaced to Vondrousova in the ultimate at the All England Club in July.
Jabeur, a Tunisian who was the first Arab girl to succeed in a Grand Slam singles ultimate, advised the crowd after her win Wednesday that she is going to donate a part of her prize cash “to assist the Palestinians. … It just isn’t a political message. It is humanity. I need peace in this world.”
Israel has been finishing up navy operations in Gaza in response to the assault by Hamas on a Jewish vacation final month.
The two girls who will advance to the semifinals from this group shall be decided Friday, when Swiatek (who’s 2-0 up to now) faces Jabeur (1-1), and Gauff (1-1) meets Vondrousva (0-2).
On Wednesday, Gauff led 4-2 in the second set, then was a game away from forcing a 3rd whereas serving at 5-4. The teenager from Florida went up 15-love, then dropped the game with the collection of double-faults. After the fourth, Gauff spiked her racket, then picked it up and tossed it at her bench as she walked to the sideline.
That was a part of a stretch in which the American misplaced 9 factors in a row and 12 of the final 13 towards Swiatek, who improved to 9-1 towards Gauff.
Earlier, Gauff chucked her racket after one errant backhand return late in the lopsided opening set.
“The first set,” Gauff stated, “went fast.”
That was the twenty second 6-0 set received in 2023 by Swiatek, a 22-year-old from Poland who was ranked No. 1 for practically 1 1/2 years till Aryna Sabalenka overtook her after the U.S. Open in September. Swiatek is the first girl to win at least 20 units by a 6-0 rating in two consecutive seasons since Steffi Graf and Monica Seles each did it in 1991-92.
Gauff and Jessica Pegula, who certified for the singles semifinals with a victory Tuesday, misplaced their doubles match to Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova 3-6, 7-5, 10-6 in Wednesday’s ultimate contest.
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