By Alberto Amalfi | Saturday, October 12, 2019
Lucky loser Coco Gauff continues her wonderous winning run in Linz.
The 15-year-old phenom flew into her first WTA final with a 6-4, 6-4 sweep of former world No. 9 Andrea Petkovic at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz.
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Gauff is the youngest woman to reach a WTA final since Nicole Vaidisova won Tashkent in October 2004.
The teenager who played through Wimbledon qualifying and knocked off Venus Williams to reach the fourth round in her SW19 debut, will play Jelena Ostapenko in tomorrow's final.
Former French Open champion Ostapenko showed fierce resolve denying three match points to rally past eighth-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova 1-6, 7-6(5), 7-5.
Ostapenko saved a match point in the second set when Alexandrova served for the final at 6-5 then fended off two more match points on her own serve at 4-5 in the decider. Ostapenko closed out a tense battle on her second match point.
The 110th-ranked Gauff dropped serve in her opening service game to trail 0-2 and did not drop serve the rest of the match.
Hammering her first serve and moving fluidly, the teenager broke back in the third game. Gauff found her groove midway through the first set racing through 12 of the last 14 points to snatch a one-set lead.
A day after Gauff showed guts and guile upsetting world No. 8
Kiki Bertens 7-6(1), 6-4 scoring her first Top 10 triumph, she dug in with defiance denying all nine break points she faced in the second set.
The Delray Beach, Florida native fought off three break points in the fourth game then converted her sixth break point of a grueling fifth game to seize a 3-2 second-set lead.
The 32-year-old Pektovic kept fighting earning two break points in the sixth game and three more break points when Gauff served for the final at 5-4.
On this day, the teenager was simply too tough on critical points.
After falling in the opening round of the qualifying draw, Gauff gained entry into the main draw on a withdrawal and has made the most of her opportunity scoring her fourth win of the week to realize a dream.