AUCKLAND: Prime-seeded Coco Gauff has retained her title on the WTA Auckland Traditional, beating second-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-Three in Sunday´s remaining.
For the primary time all week, Gauff had a struggle on her fingers. She swept into the ultimate with out dropping a set; in actual fact, dropping solely 15 video games on her approach by way of the semifinals.
That adopted her flawless event final 12 months when she didn´t drop a set in any respect and capped off an ideal week with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Rebeka Masarova within the remaining.
Third-ranked Gauff had wanted solely 4 hours of courtroom time to achieve the ultimate whereas Ukraine´s Svitolina took twice that a lot, beating Wang Xiyua of China 2-6, 6-4, 6-Three in a match which lasted four-and-a-half hours with rain breaks.
Sunday´s match in opposition to Svitolina was by far the hardest Gauff has confronted on this, the primary week of her 2024 season. She needed to come from a set down for the primary time and it took 2 hours, 23 minutes to finish her victory. Beforehand, Gauff´s longest match on the event had been 1 hour, 22 minutes.
It was a battle all through. Gauff´s serve has been the cornerstone of her sport all week. She served 10 aces alone in her 6-3, 6-1 win over fellow American Emma Navarro within the semifinals and he or she gained 80 % of factors all week when her first serve was in play.
Towards Svitolina, Gauff managed solely three aces and had seven double faults. She put solely 65 % of first serves in play and had 43 unforced errors.
Gauff seemed uncomfortable in opposition to the hard-hitting Svitolina who was tenacious and ran down photographs that Gauff beforehand would have counted as winners. However she persevered and had a profitable edge within the third set by which she broke Svitolina solely as soon as, within the eighth sport.
She served for the match and championship within the subsequent sport and needed to save a break level earlier than profitable on her first match level. She grew to become the primary participant since Julia Goerges in 2018 and 2019 to win again to again Auckland titles and the primary American to take action since Patty Fendick in 1988 and 1989.
“That is the primary time ever having to defend a title so I´m actually completely happy I used to be capable of do it at this time,” Gauff stated.