Coco Gauff earns double-fault-filled win in Montreal

New Straits Times

5 days ago

TOP-seeded Coco Gauff survived a stiff second-round test from Danielle Collins, prevailing 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (2) in an all-US matchup at the Omnium Banque Nationale on Tuesday in Montreal.
Gauff, who won the French Open last month for her second Grand Slam title, overcame a whopping 23 double faults. She served only three aces, though one came on her match point in the third-set tiebreaker. Collins' success ratio in that category wasn't much better, as she had two aces and 13 double faults.
Both players converted nine of their 16 break-point opportunities.
Gauff advances to a third-round match against Russia's Veronika Kudermetova, who topped 29th-seeded Olga Danilovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-2.
Earlier Tuesday, Aoi Ito of Japan completed a stunning comeback to eliminate Italian No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini, and hometown favorite Leylah Fernandez also experienced an early exit.
Ito, ranked No. 110 in the world, was down a set and a break before charging back to upset Paolini 2-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5) in second-round action. Ito trailed 4-1 in the second set before coming back to tie the score; she saved one match point in the 10th game on her way to forcing the third set.
Ito controlled most of the third set before Paolini forced the tiebreaker. The Italian held several one-point leads in the back-and-forth tiebreaker but Ito came back from down 5-4 to record the final three points of the match.
Ito, 21, had not won a tour-level match all season until beating Katie Volynets in the first round Sunday.
That made it even more shocking that she could oust Paolini, who already has two WTA 1000 titles under her belt this year in Qatar and Italy.
Ito won despite committing 11 double faults. She converted 7 of 10 break points against Paolini while saving 11 of the 19 break points she faced.
As for Fernandez, she never held a lead in a 6-4, 6-1 first-round defeat to Australian Maya Joint. Fernandez had beaten Joint in the first round of last week's WTA 500 event in Washington, D.C., where the Canadian went on to capture the biggest title of her career.
It was not a banner day for the Canadian contingent. No. 8 seed Emma Navarro breezed past Canada's Rebecca Marino 6-1, 6-2 in 63 minutes.
Bianca Andreescu, meanwhile, withdrew due to a foot injury, allowing a walkover for fourth seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia. The Ontario native was the 2019 Canadian Open and U.S. Open champion.
In another first-round match, Caty McNally battled past fellow American Alycia Parks 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7). McNally fell behind 3-0 in the third-set tiebreaker and saved two match points before she pulled in front.
Other Round of 64 winners included No. 9 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan; No. 15 Daria Kasatkina of Australia; No. 24 Marta Kostyuk and No. 30 Dayana Yastremska, both of Ukraine; Russia's Anna Kalinskaya; Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro; Romania's Jaqueline Cristian; the Czech Republic's Marie Bouzkova; China's Lin Zhu; and the Netherlands' Suzan Lamens. — REUTERS