Coco Gauff wins ASB Classic women's singles final against Elina ...
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Coco Gauff celebrates winning back-to-back ASB Classic finals by kissing the trophy and raising two fingers.
Coco Gauff reached a historic moment in her life at the ASB Classic on Sunday night as, for the first time in her already incredible career, she defended a title.
Her 6-7 6-3 6-3 win over Elina Svitolina was two hours and 35 minutes of the best tennis you could hope to watch as two of the sport’s biggest names turned on a spectacle.
It is Gauff’s seventh title but becomes the only one she’s won twice.
The final lived up to its potential, with both players producing scintillating tennis that would be fitting of a grand slam final, let alone a WTA 250 tournament.
Those who had tickets for Sunday’s tennis would have no doubt spent the week agonising to see if these two made it to the final and not only did their wishes come true, they got to see a match that will live long in their memories.
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Coco Gauff wins the ASB Classic in 2024.
From a tournament point of view, it didn’t matter who won the final. Under the WTA’s new rules, top 10 players are only allowed to enter a tournament at the Classic’s level if they’re the defending champion.
There’s no way Gauff will drop out of the top 10 in 2024, and it seems hard to believe that Svitolina won’t climb back inside it.
So being able to have either Gauff or Svitolina back in 2025 was a win/win for tournament director Nicolas Lamperin, even if Gauff’s agent will no doubt exploit the rule and whack up the cost of the appearance fee for her to come back for a fourth time.
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Elina Svitolina fell jus short in an epic ASB Classic final
The Classic has had plenty of big name winners over the years, Marion Bartoli, Lindsay Davenport, Ana Ivanovic, Venus and Serena Williams and indeed, Gauff over the last 20 years, but it’s not often there has been one superstar against another and this was the best line up since Venus Williams beat Caroline Wozniacki in 2015.
That was also a three-set match and like this year’s final, of exceptional quality.
But the state Svitolina was in after her two hours and 23 minutes win over Wang Xiyu in the semifinal, there could have been some doubt whether she’d be able to play in the final.
But in a warm-up on centre court a couple of hours earlier, she looked in good enough shape to at least start the match.
Incredibly, she looked as fresh as she did at the start of the tournament when this match got underway at 5pm, and she was able to duel it out with Gauff in a match of exceptional quality.
In the first set, Gauff twice broke Svitolina’s serve, but each time she failed to consolidate it, with her second serve letting her down for the first time this week.
She made five double faults in that first set, continuing to have problems with it once they got into the tiebreak, which she lost 7-4.
The American got a break in the first game of the second set and she extended that lead in the seventh game with another break.
For the third time in this match, she dropped her serve after getting a break, with one of those pesky double faults occurring in the last point of the game. However, Svitolina failed to hold serve again, so it didn’t matter and into a third set we went.
It seemed impossible to do, but both players raised their games to another level in the third set and it wasn’t until the eighth game that there was finally a break when Svitolina’s forehand went long on break point.
That put Gauff in a position to serve for the title. After winning the first two points, she badly missed a low backhand with an empty court in front of her.
She also lost the next two points, but attempting to break back, Svitolina missed a forehand winner. That was her chance gone.
Gauff won the next two points and the title was her’s again.
