Montreal – Coco Gauff returned to competition with a victory on Tuesday night, although some issues with her serve reappeared. Gauff had to overcome 23 double faults to win for the first time since the French Open final, defeating her American compatriot Danielle Collins with a score of 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (2) in the second round of the National Bank Open. Gauff hadn’t played since she lost in the first round of Wimbledon and appeared to have made a change to her service grip during her time off. She struggled with this during the match, hitting some serves that were very long and others that were soft and easily taken advantage of by the powerful Collins.
An unstable serve ended her US Open title defense last year, when she committed 19 double faults in a fourth-round loss to Emma Navarro. The serve was even more erratic on Tuesday, although Gauff managed a good serve to end the match with an ace. She is the top seed in Montreal due to the withdrawal of the world number one, Aryna Sabalenka, the player Gauff defeated to win the French Open in June. Gauff will face Veronika Kudermetova in the third round and said she had a lot left after the match that lasted 2 hours and 55 minutes, adding that she could possibly cut it in half if she improved her serve.It was a frustrating match for me. I felt like I was practicing well and I don’t think I transferred it today, but I hope I got my bad match out of the tournament and can come back stronger in the next round.
Coco Gauff
I felt like I was playing well, except that part of my game. But I felt like from the baseline I was playing pretty well.
Coco Gauff
