Seven weeks ago, when she was beaten by Sofia Kenin in the first round of Wimbledon, Coco Gauff hit a wall. For a player who first came to the world’s attention at the All England Club four years ago, when she upset Venus Williams at the same stage of the tournament at the absurdly precocious age of 15, the defeat felt symbolic of a growing stagnation.
A month earlier, Iga Swiatek had dismissed Gauff in the French Open quarter-finals, her seventh straight-sets victory over the American in seven meetings. Now, in losing to Kenin, Gauff had effectively suffered a reversal of her career-defining triumph in SW19: stunned in the opening round by a player who, for all her obvious pedigree, had come through qualifying. To a soundtrack of criticism about the technical deficiencies of her forehand and the frailty of her second serve, the wheel had come full circle for Gauff.
In the weeks since that nadir, the 19-year-old has not so much surmounted the wall as taken a sledgehammer to it. Gauff has hired a new coach in Pere Riba, the former world No 65 from Spain, and brought on board Brad Gilbert, the wily American who has previously worked with the likes of Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Andy Murray, in what she has described as a “consultancy” role.
The effect of Gauff’s reset has been transformative. A fortnight ago in Washington, she defeated Maria Sakkari to win the first WTA 500 event of her career. On Saturday in Cincinnati, she claimed a few more firsts, clinching a maiden win over Swiatek, her first over a reigning world No 1, to secure a debut appearance in a WTA 1000 final. Not for the first time, Gauff has come a long way in a short time.
“I think my game plan didn’t really change from the French Open to now, it’s just the execution was a lot better and that’s what I needed to work on,” said Gauff following a 7-6 (7-2), 3-6, 6-4 win over her serial tormentor.
“I think strategy-wise I know how to beat a lot of the players, but it’s all about executing, and I think that’s [the same] with anyone: I think most players know how to beat each other, but it’s all about are you going to be able to do it in that moment.”
When the big moments came against Swiatek, her conqueror in last year’s French Open final, Gauff’s conviction was absolute.
The match appeared to be settling into a familiar pattern when the Polish top seed capitalised on a pair of wayward forehands and a double-fault to force a break in the sixth game of the opener. Gauff had shown the greater aggression and enterprise up to that point; betrayed by the usual suspects, it would have been easy for old doubts to resurface.
Instead, the American silenced her inner demons, breaking back immediately. She repeated that feat when Swiatek, having regained the initiative, served for the set at 5-3. In each of those key passages, Gauff found a clarity of purpose that has too often eluded her against her Polish nemesis. She hammered her serves and returns. She closed down the net with all the sharpness one would expect from one of the world’s best doubles players. She heeded Gilbert’s exhortations to play with greater margin on the forehand – a shot she took down the line time and again, limiting Swiatek’s ability to run riot with her own forehand.
No stranger to dealing with adversity in a week when she has struggled to find her best tennis, Swiatek carved out a pair of set points against Gauff’s serve at 5-6, 15-40 only to be denied by two huge first serves, the second of which the American followed up with a crunching bounce smash.
“Make things difficult right now, make her push,” urged Gilbert from courtside after his charge rattled off the first three points of the ensuing tiebreak. Roared on by the home crowd, Gauff did not need to be told twice. Minutes later a Swiatek forehand flew long, earning the American the first set of her career against the world No 1. Gauff celebrated with gusto.
Her animation would soon be magnified tenfold. For all the trademark defiance that saw Swiatek level the contest and then push Gauff to the limit as she served to consolidate a break in the seventh game of the decider, big serves, bold shot-making and brilliant defensive play continued to flow from the opposite end of the court. Gauff was forced to fend off five break points in her final two service games and, when Swiatek steered a final volley wide, confirming the most significant victory of Gauff’s career, the explosion of joy from the teenager was unconfined.
“I felt it, from the moment I walked on the court, that I wasn’t going to lose this match, even when the moments got tough,” said Gauff, who will face Karolina Muchova, a 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-2 winner over Aryna Sabalenka, in Sunday’s final. “I was right, I guess.”
Win or lose against Muchova, Gauff must now be regarded as a genuine title contender at the forthcoming US Open. Yet Swiatek too has ample cause for optimism as she prepares to defend the crown she won last year against Ons Jabeur. Having won a fourth title of the year at the Warsaw Open and reached the last four in Montreal and Cincinnati, where she suffered last-16 defeats to Beatriz Haddad Maia and Madison Keys last term, the 22-year-old is in considerably better shape ahead of the season’s last major than she was 12 months ago.
“I would say my tank of fuel is pretty empty, so honestly I’m not even going to regret a lot, because I’m happy that I’m going to have days off now,” said Swiatek. “Coco for sure played great tennis.
“I’ve got to check, but I think her first serve was better than most of the matches we played against each other: faster, and she played more in, even though she risking with that speed.”
Swiatek has had moments of vulnerability over the past week, recovering from a set down against China’s Qinwen Zheng and surviving a tight opening set against Marketa Vondrousova, the Wimbledon champion. Unforced errors have been largely to blame, and many of the 46 she made against Gauff came late in the first and third sets. The need to strike a balance between flat-out ball-striking and controlled aggression seems clear. Yet it would be foolhardy to question the title credentials of a player with 11 wins from her past 13 matches. Swiatek remains the front-runner for the US Open.
“I know that I had two moments throughout the match when I lost, I don’t know, six points with unforced errors suddenly, so I have to watch and see how that really happened, because it’s not like it’s happening a lot,” said Swiatek.
“I thought that technically I did everything right, so I was kind of surprised that I missed a couple of shots. But it happens.”
Carlos Alcaraz will face Novak Djokovic in the men’s final after overcoming Hubert Hurkacz 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. Djokovic, playing his first event since losing a dramatic five-set final to Alcaraz at Wimbledon, came through 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 against Alexander Zverev.