Coco Gauff’s summer has been a strange mix of milestones and missteps. In Montreal, she served 23 double faults in a single match against Danielle Collins. That’s the most in a WTA Tour match since 2019, when Jelena Ostapenko hit 25 against Karolína Plíšková at the China Open in Beijing. The twist? Gauff actually won that match. However, the 21-year-old’s Montreal campaign ended with a shocking loss to eventual champion Victoria Mboko. The American has quickly shifted her focus. Cincinnati offers a fresh page, and she is already making records that brush up against the sport’s legends.
The World No 2 needed just 70 minutes to dismiss World No 37 Wang Xinyu 6-3, 6-2. She converted all five break points she earned and saved five of seven she faced. The head-to-head between the two had been split coming in, but it’s important to note that both of Xinyu’s victories against Gauff had come on grass, in Berlin. Gauff leads the series on hard courts, her most trusted surface.
And in doing so, she ticked off an achievement that almost no one else has managed. Having received a first-round bye, the win marked the 36th time Gauff has won her opening match at a WTA 1000 event. That improves her overall record to 36-8 in these first-up encounters, a mark even Serena Williams never reached before turning 22.
36 – Coco Gauff has moved past her opening match in 36 of the 44 WTA-1000 tournaments she has appeared in, only Matina Hingis (46) has won more opening matches in Tier1/WTA-1000 tournaments before turning 22. Forward. #CincyTennis | @CincyTennis @WTA pic.twitter.com/YnWpwLjRpq
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) August 10, 2025
Since the WTA 1000, formerly known as Tier 1, format was introduced in 1990, only Martina Hingis has done better at such a young age. The five-time Grand Slam champion won 46 opening matches at these tournaments before her 22nd birthday in September 2002. While Gauff cannot surpass that number, she still has five more WTA 1000 events before turning 22 on March 13 next year to build on her own tally.
This win carried an extra layer of significance. It was the American starlet’s first victory in Cincinnati since lifting the trophy in 2023. Last year, she fell at the first hurdle, losing to Yulia Putintseva in the opening match of her title defense. Beating Xinyu was a step back toward familiar territory at the WTA 1000 level.
And to think, just a week ago in Montreal, there were doubts about Coco Gauff’s form. Those doubts seemed to be creeping in at Cincinnati as well, but it looks like the 2-time Grand Slam champion is slowly but surely getting it under control.
Coco Gauff has finally “let go” of double-fault yips
Coco Gauff’s serve was under the microscope for all the wrong reasons. Across three matches, she piled up 42 double faults. The WTA Tour’s current leader in double faults (293) always has the threat of a shaky serve looming. At the Cincinnati Open, when she hit three in a single game on Sunday, there was an uneasy buzz in the stands at P&G Center Court.
It felt like the same pattern might unfold again. But after serving eight double faults in her first three service games, she shut the door on the problem entirely. The rest of the way, she didn’t hit a single one.
“I think [I was] just trusting myself and trusting the work we put in in practice,” Gauff said after the match. “In the second set, I was able to let go, and I think just try not to focus on the past, knowing that I can’t control it, and just trying to do better for the future. I’m happy I was able to change that mindset around.”
Her next test will come against No. 32 seed Dayana Yastremska, who battled past Viktoriya Tomova 6-4, 2-6, 6-2. Gauff leads their head-to-head 3-1 and has generally been more comfortable on hard courts, the surface on which she became the youngest ever Cincinnati champion two years ago, before going on to win the US Open.
Now, she is chasing a cleaner summer story. Cincinnati might just be the place where it begins.
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