RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Jean-Cristophe Faurel, Coco Gauff’s coach for the past six years on and off, has been impressed with her competitiveness in big moments.
“She’s amazing in the ability she has to just close everything,” he explained before the tournament. “For me, the French Open final is the best example. Like every player, she can be irritated, distracted when she plays — look at us [in the player’s box] too much.
“She maybe looked at us two times. She was in the zone. This makes her different from many, many players. Semifinals, final, big match … she plays her best tennis most of the time. I think she’s 11 for 14 in finals.”
One of those, of course, was Gauff’s triumph at Roland Garros, her crowning achievement in a season where she qualified for her fourth straight WTA Finals. On Tuesday, facing possible elimination, the No. 3 seed dug in again and delivered another impressive performance.
The defending champion scored a 6-3, 6-2 victory over No. 8 seed Jasmine Paolini and, at the very least, will live for another day at the year-end championships.
With the straight sets loss, Paolini is now eliminated from the Stefanie Graf Group. Gauff (1-1) will play No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka (2-0) — who defeated Jessica Pegula (1-1) in the second singles match of the day — on Thursday.
“I’m just happy to get over this one,” Gauff said. “Today was a big mental win. It’s definitely going to be a big match for me. I know I need to win to give myself the chance to move on. It could be my last match of the season – so that’s how I’ve been playing it every match this tournament.”
Paolini was ill in advance of the tournament, and never once looked to be her perky, upbeat self.
WTA
“Coming here and not being 100 percent, it’s painful, of course,” she said afterward. “It’s not easy to play at that level. Today was a tough one. I was hoping to play a bit better, but I didn’t.
“I’m a little bit upset, but somehow I have to accept it.”
In her opening three-set loss to Pegula, Gauff’s serve (17 double faults, nine breaks) and forehand (45 unforced errors) were all over the place. Against Paolini, she was far more buttoned up.
Gauff suffered only three double faults and won 35 of her 50 service points. She was particularly sharp on her second serve, winning 15 of 19 points. She has now produced 33 career Top 10 wins in her young career.
Gauff was thrilled to put that opening match behind her.
“I’m really happy with how I was able to turn it around,” Gauff said afterward. “Only three double faults — 17 is a big difference. It just shows I have the ability to serve like this.
“Just going back to the basics, trying not to overcomplicate things. I think maybe I might have served a little too hard in that match against Jess. So I just tried to slow it down.”
It was the second straight appearance at the WTA Finals for Paolini. Her singles record is 1-4, but she and partner Sara Errani are still alive as the top seeds in doubles.
Overall, Paolini came in with better recent results, winning three of four matches against Gauff — all earlier this year. However, Gauff prevailed in straight sets in Wuhan last month on her way to the title.
Gauff broke in Paolini’s first service game and had run off eight consecutive points when she fell into a love-40 hole. But instead of giving in and allowing the Italian back on serve, Gauff played some patient defense and won the game’s last five points to take a 3-0 lead.
But Paolini gradually worked her way into the match. She actually had three chances to level it at 4-all, but Gauff won five straight points to take a definitive 5-3 lead.
The second set began quietly and stayed on serve until the fifth game, when Gauff scored her third break of the match. Gauff came back to do it again in the seventh
Gauff has won 11 of the 14 finals she’s played at the Hologic WTA Tour level, a statistic that Faurel was quick to cite as evidence of her ability in the clutch.
“Many people tell me it was a great year,” Faurel said. “But there was a lot of up and down, for sure. She has two Slams, yes, but she wants so much more.”