Coco Gauff Surprised at the Berlin Open
The recent French Open champion, Coco Gauff, suffered an unexpected defeat in her return to action on Thursday. She fell to Chinese tennis player Wang Xinyu, coming from the qualifying round, with a score of 6-3, 6-3 at the Berlin Open. Gauff, currently number two in the world and who conquered Roland Garros less than two weeks ago, accumulated 25 unforced errors and seven double faults during the match. Gauff, who had a direct pass to the second round in this grass court tournament, which serves as preparation for Wimbledon. Wang, ranked number 49, expressed her satisfaction with the first set, considering the level of her opponent.Gauff showed difficulties on the slippery grass court and suffered a break in the seventh game. Wang secured the set after Gauff committed a double fault at deuce and then sent a drop shot into the net on set point. Gauff managed a break to go up 3-1 in the second set, but Wang strung together five consecutive games to secure the victory. Aryna Sabalenka, also competing for the first time since her defeat to Gauff in the French Open final, completed a 6-2, 7-6 (6) victory over Rebeka Masarova, advancing to the quarterfinals. The match had been suspended on Wednesday due to slippery conditions. Sabalenka was leading by a set on Wednesday when play was stopped, after tournament officials declared that the court was becoming too slippery due to the humidity after sunset. When the match resumed on Thursday, the 27-year-old player suffered a break at the beginning of the second set and found herself with a score of 3-1 and 4-2 against her. However, she remained calm and recovered the break with an excellent volley to force a tiebreaker. Sabalenka squandered two match points before securing the victory on her next opportunity, when Masarova sent a forehand mid-court into the net. Her next rival will be Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan. Marketa Vondrousova, Wimbledon 2023 champion, needed three sets and 2 hours and 20 minutes to overcome Diana Shnaider’s resistance. Vondrousova, who was leading 6-5 and 30-0 in the second set, advanced with a 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-3 victory and will face lucky loser Ons Jabeur, two-time Wimbledon finalist, in the quarterfinals.After winning the first set, I told myself: ‘Well, let’s take a minute and enjoy this, I’m playing against the French Open champion, and I won the first set.’ No matter how the second and third sets go, I thought: ‘Ok, let’s enjoy it for a second.’ I’m very happy with how I played today. I was serving well and putting a lot of pressure on the return, especially on the second serve return.
Wang Xinyu
