PARMA, May 22, 2021 (by Lorenzo Carini)
Coco Gauff won her second WTA singles title – and first on clay – with her 6-1, 6-3 win over China’s Wang Qiang to capture the inaugural WTA 250 Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, Italy, Saturday afternoon. The title match at the Tennis Club Parma lasted just one hour and 14 minutes. Later, she added a doubles title to her budding trophy collection.
The third-seeded American from Delray Beach, Fla., who was a semifinalist in Rome last week, will enter the Top 30 next week, reaching a career-best ranking. In her first meeting against the No. 6 seed Wang, Gauff overcame six double faults hitting 21 winners and breaking Wang’s serve four times in eight opportunities. On an afternoon when Gauff’s serve was not broken, she outpointed her Chinese opponent 65-46.
These moments!!!! 😍 @CocoGauff #champion of the #EmiliaRomagnaOpen 🏆 pic.twitter.com/2iHGiBLEqJ
— MEF tennis events (@meftennisevents) May 22, 2021
“I was really nervous closing the match,“ Gauff said. “This title gives me a lot of motivation and it means a lot to me. The hospitality in Parma has been great; Italian people seem to like me and I like them, too. I can’t wait to be back here and in Rome next year.”
Now, Gauff will rest for a week before playing in the Roland Garros main draw for the second time. In 2020, the American lost to the Italian Martina Trevisan in the second round after beating No. 9 seed Johanna Konta of Great Britain.
“I feel really good now, I have a week to get ready for Roland Garros,“ Gauff said during her virtual press conference. “I hope I can do a good tournament in Paris. I will take one or two days off and then I will return to practice”.
Gauff completes singles/doubles title sweep in Parma
Gauff also won the Parma doubles title along with her long-time doubles partner Caty McNally after the fourth seeds from United States beat Darija Jurak of Croatia and Andreja Klepac of Slovenia, 6-3, 6-2, in 66 minutes. It was their third WTA title together and first since winning twice in 2019 in Washington, D.C., and Luxembourg. The title will enable Gauff and McNally to improve their doubles ranking to No. 36 and No. 41 respectively.as
“Caty is a very good friend of mine, it’s nice to have a friend to play doubles with. I am really happy to have won both singles and doubles titles today,” Gauff said.
At 17 years, 70 days old, Gauff became the youngest player to win both a singles and doubles title in the same event since Maria Sharapova achieved the feat made in 2004 at Birmingham at the age of 17 years and 55 days old. Sharapova completed the sweep 92 days after Gauff was born.
