By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, January 6, 2023
Top-seeded Coco Gauff streaked through eight straight games defeating Danka Kovinic 6-0, 6-2, to fly into her fourth career final in Auckland.
Photo credit: Hannah Peters/Getty
Walking out onto court wearing headphones, Coco Gauff was bouncing to the beat in her ears.
In her first tournament as top seed, a grooved Gauff surged through eight consecutive games defeating Danka Kovinic 6-0, 6-2 to streak into the Auckland final.
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It is Gauff's fourth career final and first since last June when she reached her maiden major championship match at Roland Garros bowing to world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
"It was really good on my behalf," Gauff said in her on-court interview. "Danka played really well. I mean today I was just playing good, but she showed fight at the end and I wish her all the best in Australia."
The 18-year-old Gauff has faced four tough opponents—Tatjana Maria, Sofia Kenin, Lin Zhu and Kovinic—and scored four straight-sets wins becoming the first American woman to reach the ASB Classic final since Serena Williams in 2020.
The top-seeded Gauff will be the heavy favorite playing for her third career title when she faces either 95th-ranked Belgian Ysaline Bonaventure or 130th-ranked Spaniard Rebeka Masarova in the final.
A soggy week in Auckland sent Gauff indoors for her last two matches. She looked energized playing before an enthusiastic crowd today.
"I'm glad I was able to play in front of you guys finally three days later pretty much," Gauff told the crowd. "Pretty much a sold-out house so thank you guys for supporting and I hope you can see the next match."
Dancing around danger in the first game, Gauff found her footing quickly on a center court that looks slower than the indoor courts Gauff played on in the prior two rounds.
Gauff denied a pair of break points in the opening game, jamming an ace down the T to save the first, in navigating a tricky hold.
The Roland Garros runner-up qualified for the 2022 WTA Finals in both singles and doubles and put her transition skills to good use. Pressuring Kovinic with a pair of forward runs, Gauff slid a forehand winner down the line breaking for 2-0.
Gauff's speed around the court is unsettling whether she's using it to attack or defend.
Driving Kovinic back with a deep return, Gauff pounced on a mid-court ball and went airborne for a Marcelo Rios-style leaping backhand winner that gave her a break point. Dashing left, Gauff dug out a deep shot and lifted back a lob. A back-pedaling Kovinic smashed into net as Gauff snuck out a second straight break for 4-0.
Playing with taping across her right knee, Kovinic struggled to gain traction in the set. Sailing a forehand to face set point, Kovinic missed a backhand as Gauff streaked through the 28-minute opener.
Apart from the break points in the first game, Gauff played largely a stress-free set winning her seventh consecutive set of the tournament.
Gauff rolled through eight straight games going up a break in the second set.
Credit Kovinic for continuing to hammer away and incorporate the drop shot to try to drag Gauff off the baseline.
The seventh-seeded Kovinic cracked a couple of passing shots to break serve for the first time and get on the board at 1-2 after 44 minutes.
That was Gauff's lone lapse. The 18-year-old American broke right back on a Kovinic double fault then backed up the break at 30 for a 4-1 lead.
Every time Kovinic made a push, Gauff had a firm response.
Kovinic clanked her fourth double fault to hand Gauff a fourth match point. Gauff grabbed it forcing a netted backhand to wrap her fourth straight-sets win in 73 minutes.