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Coco Gauff won the biggest title of her career so far at the Citi Open in Washington.
The teenager entered the tournament seeded third and reached the final following straight-sets wins over Hailey Baptiste, sixth seed Belinda Bencic, and eighth seed Liudmila Samsonova.
Gauff then beat fourth seed Maria Sakkari 6-2, 6-3 to claim her first WTA 500 title. After winning the match, the American celebrated her win by doing a little twirl on the court.
Speaking after the match, Coco Gauff ranked her win over Sakkari as the third-best of her career to date. The top two were her reaching the French Open final last season and her maiden singles title triumph.
"Yeah, I think probably, like, right after, I would say, my first title -- I would say obviously the Grand Slam final was No. 1. Then I would say my first title, No. 2. I'll put this at No. 3. Even though this is a higher level, but, you know, that first one is special for me. Yeah, so I would say this is, like, No. 3 win for me on tour," Gauff said.
Coco Gauff has won four singles titles so far in her career
Coco Gauff has so far won four singles titles throughout her young career, the first of which came at the 2019 Linz Open, where she beat Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 in the final.
Her second title came two years later at the 2021 Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, defeating Wang Qiang 6-1, 6-3 in the title clash. The American's third and fourth titles both came this season without dropping a single set. Before claiming the Citi Open, she won the ASB Classic in Auckland by beating Rebeka Masarova 6-1, 6-1 in the final.
Gauff has won 31 out of 43 matches so far this season, with two titles to her name. Apart from her two title triumphs, the American reached the semifinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships and the quarterfinals of the French Open and the BNP Paribas Open.
Following her win in Washington, the 19-year-old is next scheduled to compete at the National Bank Open in Toronto. She already received a bye to the second round of the WTA 1000 event by virtue of being one of the top eight seeds and will start her campaign against either Katie Boulter or Rebecca Marino.
