Coco Gauff has been enjoying her week in Auckland. Photo / Photosport
Coco Gauff has been enjoying her week in Auckland. Photo / Photosport
Coco Gauff had a special reason for coming back to the ASB Classic – and she is one match away from fulfilling that destiny.
The world No 3 is a player in demand, one of the biggest drawcards in tennis, who was also the highest earning female athlete on the planet in 2023.
Gauff usually plays on much bigger stages but returning to Auckland was a deliberate plan, to feel the pressure associated with defending a title.
Due to various circumstances, the 19-year-old hasn’t had the opportunity before with the other tournaments she has won.
Now she does – after a sublime week where she has improved with every match, culminating in Saturday’s 6-3 6-1 destruction of fourth seed Emma Navarro.
Gauff could become only the third woman to win back to back here this century, after Greek Eleni Daniilidou in 2004 and 2005 and German Julia Goerges between 2018-19, which would complete a master plan.
“Playing at this tournament, with my ranking probably there is other events to play but it was important to test myself on how I would be able to defend a title.
“Who knows how I am going to do on Sunday but I am pretty proud of being able to take that pressure because we all know I have a good end of the year to back up,” Gauff said, referring to her stunning American swing last year, when she took out the US Open, a WTA 1000 in Cincinnati and Washington WTA 500 event in a six-week spell.
It was a deliberate strategy, with Gauff able to back up the theory.
“It’s giving myself the time to be able to practise putting myself in this position because I have won titles in the past but the schedule didn’t work out and then Covid happened,” said Gauff. “This is the first opportunity that I had to feel what it is like to come back as defending champion and try to back that up.”
“It’s almost impossible really – unless you are like Roger [Federer] – to have completely no reaction when you lose a point, when you hit a bad shot,” said Gauff. “So I allow myself to finish that then I have to let all that go.
Coco Gauff plays a shot against Emma Navarro in their semifinal. Photo / Photosport
“I give myself time to react, but also give [myself] time to focus because you don’t want to turn that one mistake into two or three mistakes in a row.”
That hasn’t happened. Gauff hasn’t come close to dropping a set, averaging only 67 minutes on court per match. Though the level of opposition has been modest, Gauff looks like she can accelerate at any moment. There’s also time for a laugh, admitting that an attempted drop shot on Saturday was a shocker.
“Man, a one really bad one, has to be the worst shot of the year,” smiled Gauff. “I couldn’t do anything but laugh, it bounced like two feet in front of me.”
That was a rare blooper. She served beautifully – with a remarkable 10 aces – and vicious combinations of speed and swing. Gauff has been in the zone from the line, with a 207km/h effort on Friday believed to be the fastest of her career.
Gauff made light work of the first set. She made her customary fast start – breaking Navarro in the fourth game – and was ruthless with anything short. Navarro put up sterner opposition than other players this week but was still worn down by the barrage, seemingly stuck at the back of the court fending off missiles.
She had success with a more aggressive approach late in the second set – forcing two break points – but Gauff salvaged both with booming aces and was safe from there.
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns.
