WASHINGTON, August 5, 2023 (by Michael Dickens)
Coco Gauff played one of her best matches of the season at the revamped WTA 500 Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington, D.C. Friday. The 19-year-old American was impressive in defeating reigning Olympic gold medalist and World No. 15 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, 6-1, 6-2, losing just three games while needing just 85 minutes to advance to Saturday afternoon’s semifinal with World No. 18 and defending champion Liudmila Samsonova of Russia, whom she has beaten in both of their previous meetings
Afterward, the World No. 7 and third-seeded Gauff, who is through to her fourth semifinal of the season, shared in her post-match news conference that her victory over Bencic (which leveled their career head-to-head at 1-1) was “one of the top matches” that she has played. “I had some good ones at Roland Garros, too. But I think with the caliber of player and the way I played, this is definitely one of the top ones.”
Gauff, who headlined the sold-out Friday evening session under the lights on 7,500-seat Stadium Court at the William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park, won 60 percent of her service points and 59 percent of her returns against Bencic. She struck five aces in her eight service games – including four in the sixth game of the second set – converted six of nine break points, and kept the Swiss star, who committed 26 unforced errors, off balance throughout the quarterfinal contest.
Red-hot @CocoGauff ❤️🔥#MubadalaCitiDCOpen pic.twitter.com/sUEAqDu14v
— Mubadala Citi DC Open (@mubadalacitidc) August 5, 2023
Now, Gauff looks forward to reaching her second final of 2023 and first since winning the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand last January.
“This is the tennis that I have been trying to play,” Gauff explained. … “From the first point of the match, I tried to tell myself that I’m going to be aggressive in the moments I need to. Granted, it’s Belinda, so I can’t do that all the time, so I did win some points off the defense, but that’s what I needed to do at the moment.
“Belinda is not an easy player to play. You know, I played all types of tennis. I was the aggressor in some moments. Some moments I was the defender. …
“I don’t know if I’m a hard critic on myself, but I feel like I could do better in a lot of moments today even though the scoreline seemed easier, but I don’t think the scoreline reflected the level of the match today.”
From the first point of the match, Gauff showed an aggressive side to her game that recently has been lacking, and might explain her surprising first-round departure from last month’s Wimbledon Championships, after losing to former Grand Slam champion Sofia Kenin, one that gave her time to reflect and also be a fan at her friend Christopher Eubanks‘s matches during his surprising run to the quarterfinals.
We’re soarin’, flyin’ 🎵@CocoGauff up 6-1 vs Bencic on Stadium!#MubadalaCitiDCOpen pic.twitter.com/dmNfa0dp50
— Mubadala Citi DC Open (@mubadalacitidc) August 5, 2023
Gauff has also gone through a coaching transition that has drawn the attention of the media covering the tournament. Her father, Corey, has stepped aside and turned over his coaching duties while remaining a trusted voice and confident in her player’s box during matches. Her new coach is Pere Riba, a 35-year-old former Top-100 player from Spain, who has previously coached and collaborated with several players on the WTA Tour, including Zheng Qinwen and Arantxa Rus.
“He used to play on tour not too long ago,” Gauff told the Washington Post in a recent interview. “He’s pretty young for a coach, and he has a great personality. You have to travel with this person. You see them more than your family – you want to make sure you get along on and off the court. We’re working together right now through the US Open, and obviously if things go well, we’ll continue after.”
This week in D.C., Gauff has also been working with Brad Gilbert, the longtime ESPN tennis analyst, who formerly coached current and future Hall of Famers Andre Agassi and Andy Murray.
Together, Riga and Gilbert are attempting to transform Gauff’s forehand from a defensive liability into an offensive weapon. Gauff is also focusing on her serve and how she crafts rallies, from first ball to last.
Gauff has always shown promise and enjoyed success on hard courts, where seven of her 12 semifinals have come playing on a hard-court surface. However, if Friday evening’s on-court demeanor is anything to judge by as well as her victory earlier in the week against 204th-ranked Hailey Baptiste, Gauff has begun centering her play and focus by using positive aggression. It’s something that has been lacking from her personality, but it’s a style that she has benefited from when facing some of the top-ranked players on tour like Aryna Sabalenka, whom she has beaten three times in five career meetings.
‘It makes me a little bit emotional playing Hailey [Baptiste] because growing up, there wasn’t really too many black women in juniors, and for us to be both here on tour really means a lot’@CocoGauff had us in our feels after her opening round win in DC ❤️#MubadalaCitiDCOpen pic.twitter.com/WhE3MsKNHf
— Mubadala Citi DC Open (@mubadalacitidc) August 3, 2023
The Atlanta native, who now resides in south Florida, was asked in her news conference Friday evening after beating Bencic if she felt like her game is turning a corner and heading in the right direction. Gauff replied: “Yeah, I definitely do feel like I’m heading in the right direction. … I think just the way I’m playing is a lot better, and I think a lot of people can see that.
“I think if anybody watched my matches between Wimbledon or even at Roland Garros, like, I was winning at Roland Garros. I made the quarters, it was great, but I don’t think it was the type of tennis that could sustain me to making consistently good results.
“I think this type of tennis can help me make good results. I’m not expecting to win everything right off the bat of a coaching change. I think if you’re a player and you’re expecting to just switch the coach that that’s going to change your life, I think you’re wrong.
“A lot of it is you. Yeah, I just needed direction, and I think that they provided me with that direction. So, I am happy with the way I’m playing. Even if I lost today 2 and 1 and I played the way that I played today, I would still be satisfied, because that means my opponent had to play better than A-plus tennis to beat me.”
Hop on the Coco hype train 🎟️@CocoGauff | #MubadalaCitiDCOpen pic.twitter.com/cxlnUHDhKS
— Mubadala Citi DC Open (@mubadalacitidc) August 2, 2023
As a young player who has tasted success from a young age – four years ago at age 15, Gauff made her major debut by upsetting five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams on No. 1 Court at the All England Club – a lot of things have come quickly to Gauff. From that day at Wimbledon, Gauff has morphed into a Top-10 player. Yet, she was been patient with the process and with herself.
“A lot of people expected a lot from me so early on … but I really told myself going into this transition that I wasn’t going to pressure myself on winning right away,” Gauff explained. “I think I can win, but, you know, it’s going to – I wanted to win in a particular type of way, and I felt like the matches in the past I wasn’t winning I was really – I mean, I am more on the athletic side, and I have a good serve and I think I was winning matches and I have a good mentality. I think I was winning matches, like, on that.
“But you know, I don’t think it’s enough to win a Slam. So, I needed to be more aggressive. I need to play the first-strike tennis, and I need to find a way to blend all those things and make it one. I think that’s the way I did today.
“[I’m] not saying it’s going to make me win a Grand Slam, US Open, or even next year, but I do think this is the path I need to go. If I go through my career without winning one, I do think I can say at least I’m doing the steps now to kind of make that happen.”
