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Serena Williams’ former coach, Rennae Stubbs, gave her verdict on Coco Gauff’s hard-fought win against Qinwen Zheng in the Italian Open semifinals, saying the American’s experience in playing doubles helped her be clinical at the net. Gauff dug deep to register a 7-6 (3), 4-6, 7-6 (4) win to advance to the Italian Open final, where she will take on Jasmine Paolini.
It was an end-to-end battle between the two players that lasted three and a half hours, and Gauff, the fourth seed, emerged the victor after she converted nearly 53% of her breakpoint opportunities. While the American would be happy to extend her head-to-head record against Zheng to 3-0, she would be disappointed with her double faults as she racked up 14 of them.
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The one defining factor that swung the match in Gauff’s favour, as per Stubbs, was her net play. Stubbs attributed Coco Gauff’s superb reflexes at the net to her recent exposure playing doubles, where she recently made it to the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open and the Italian Open.
Stubbs wrote on her X account:
“Playing doubles help Coco win that game. Good reflexes and volley at the net. Zheng on the other hand didnt know what to do there. Can't believe she moved back to hit a backhand instead of forward to hit a volley. HUGE turning point there, especially with Coco serving issues.”
Stubbs, who closely followed the match, praised the quality of tennis on display:
“THIS IS A HELL OF A MATCH! @CocoGauff v Zheng…. @WTA @TennisChannel”
Stubbs is a former World No. 1 doubles star and is a six-time Grand Slam champion. She then transitioned into a coaching career and has worked with the likes of Serena Williams, Samantha Stosur and Karolina Pliskova. Stubbs, who is also a television pundit and analyst, called out the Italian Open organizers for their scheduling of the semifinal matches as Gauff’s match went way past midnight.
When Coco Gauff served, but did not realize Zheng Qinwen wasn’t at the baseline
The third set of the Italian Open semifinal between Coco Gauff and Zheng Qinwen had a rather funny incident as the American sent down a thunderous serve, oblivious to the fact that her opponent had walked back to her bench to change her racket.
The incident occurred in the third set when Gauff had broken in the first game and was leading 30-0 in the second. Per usual, Gauff took her mark and fired a serve, only to later realize that Qinwen was not at the other end to receive it. Gauff covered her face in embarrassment when she noticed what had happened, while the crowd and even the umpire broke into smiles.
Gauff will now face an uphill battle against local favourite Jasmine Paolini in the Italian Open final. While the American does hold an edge in terms of their head-to-head record, it was the Italian who won their last encounter, so this promises to be a cracker of a contest.
