Entering into the first Grand Slam of 2024, Coco Gauff will bring a whole new spirit to the court, although she acknowledges that one of her shots needs a lot of work.
The 19-year-old felt she was ready to win again after she easily defeated Emma Navarro in straight sets to reach the ABS Classic final in Auckland.
Gauff won 93% of the points on her first serve, including 10 aces, in a commanding performance in the 6-3, 6-1 triumph. Giving her fellow American no chance to enter the match, she converted four of five break points and did not give up the serve.
Gauff expressed her thoughts after the win and said: “It feels good to be back here in the final. I’m really happy with how I played today and I can keep it up for one more match. Today there was one really bad one. I don’t even know what that was; it landed on my side. It has to be the worst shot of the year; they need to pull that up at the end of the year.”
Gauff realizes that her drop shot has been lacking in Auckland and plans to work on it.
She added: “I couldn’t do anything but laugh. Sometimes it’s like that. I was working on my drop shots; I’m not Carlos Alcaraz. But the goal is to be somewhere with the drop shots. I did hit one good one today, so I’m happy with that. Hopefully, I can continue to get better, but when that one bounced two feet in front of me, it was hilarious. I rate my drop shots a six out of 10. But they’ve saved my life in some scenarios, so I can’t get too upset at them.”
Gauff in Auckland, ranking, and results in 2024
Now the world no.3 (career-high), the American owns an overall 4-0 record in 2024. Gauff is playing at the moment in Auckland where she toppled the world no.95 Claire Liu 6-4 6-2
, the world no.117 Brenda Fruhvirtova 6-3 6-0, the world no.42 Varvara Gracheva 6-1 6-1 and the world no.31 Emma Navarro 6-3 6-1.Coco Gauff will take on the world no.25 Elina Svitolina in the final. Their record is 1-0 for Svitolina.
The American won 6 titles in her career: 4 on hard courts, 1 on clay courts and 1 on indoor courts. (See the list of her titles)
Carlos Alcaraz in 2024
At the moment ranked no.2, Carlos played his last match on the 18th of November 2023 when he was overcome by world no.1 Novak Djokovic 6-3 6-2 in the semifinal in the Nitto ATP Finals (draw).
Until now, during this year Alcaraz achieved a 65-12 record.
Alcaraz will play next at the Australian Open (Australian Open). He will start to play the tournament from the main draw that will commence on the 14th of January.
Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz |
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