No one plays a perfect tennis match.
Coco Gauff came pretty close Sunday evening in Cincinnati, winning the biggest tuneup before the U.S. Open and in the process becoming one of the leading favorites to win the year’s final Grand Slam.
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Gauff beat Jessica Pegula 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and a quarter to win her first title in 10 months. And it couldn’t have come at a better time.
After a dominant 10 days at the Cincinnati Open and a pretty good showing in Toronto, where she lost in the semifinals in three sets, her confidence is soaring. A year ago, Gauff could barely hit the two most important shots in the game: her serve and her forehand. She was double-digit double-faulting seemingly every match and hitting forehands off her back foot.
Things had gotten so low heading into the U.S. Open, Gauff hired Gavin MacMillan, a biomechanist who helped turn Aryna Sabalenka into the world No. 1, and he began taking apart her strokes on the eve of the biggest tournament of the year.
A year later, the dividends from spending the better part of this season in the lab, patiently getting better and better, are being collected every match. Gauff’s serve is once again a huge weapon. She pumped 123 mph serves into the corners against Pegula. She pounded topspin forehands that had Pegula backpedaling for most of the night.
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Gauff had a couple of hiccups late in each set, including when she served for the match. Each time she righted the ship, breaking Pegula back whenever she had a chance to get her teeth into the match.
After Pegula smacked a last forehand into the net, Gauff dropped her racket and raised her arms in the air. She beamed as she put one finger on either side of her head. Then she headed into the stands to hug her longtime coach, J.C. Faurel, and then, of course, MacMillan.
“You were like a backboard today,” Pegula told Gauff during the trophy ceremony.
Gauff didn’t disagree.
“I don’t know, all the balls were going in for me today,” Gauff said with a laugh on the court with the big trophy in her hands. “What a difference a year can make.”
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She called Faurel and MacMillan a “dynamic duo.”
No argument there.
She recalled crying in the parking lot after losing in the qurterfinals in Cincinnati 12 months ago.
“What a difference a year makes,” she said.
Gauff won Cincinnati three years ago. Three weeks later, she won her maiden Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open.
The way Gauff is playing now, if history repeats itself, it won’t come as a surprise.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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