Coco Gauff, the'beginning of the season on'grass is to be forgotten
The first match of the season on the grass gives a disappointment to Coco Gauff: the winner, a few days ago, of Roland Garros, was in fact defeated in the second round of the WTA tournament in Berlin by the Chinese Wang Xinyu, number 49 in the world rankings, capable of overcoming Ons Jabeur in the final round of the qualifiers and Daria Kasatkina in the first round (which Gauff had been able to skip thanks to a ‘bye’).
The match between the Chinese player and the American ended after 68 minutes of play, with Wang eventually winning 6-3, 6-3.
She will therefore be the one to meet in the quarters Paula Badosa, the tournament’s No. 8 seed, who in her own second-round match won over Emma Navarro (Jannik Sinner’s announced partner in the mixed doubles at the US Open) 7-6(2), 6-3).
The grass thus remains a taboo for the American champion, current No. 2 on the women’s professional circuit.
Indeed, on the traditional summer surface, Gauff has never won a tournament, achieving few notable results, such as qualifying for the semifinals in Berlin itself in 2022 and 2024, beating Karolina Pliskova and Ons Jabeur, respectively.
The Berlin Ladies Open is one of the most important WTA 500 category tournaments of the season: winning it the most times was Steffi Graf, nine times between 1986 and 1996, while winning it last year was Jessica Pegula, who defeated in the tournament’s final act Anna Kalinskaya in a comeback: 6-7(0), 6-4, 7-6(3) the final score.
