Coco Gauff suffers shock Qatar Open loss to world No 57 Elisabetta Cocciaretto in straight sets
World No 5 Coco Gauff lost in straight sets to world No 57 Elisabetta Cocciaretto, suffering a shock 6-4 6-2 defeat in the second round of the Qatar Open.
The reigning French Open champion lost in an exhausting 5-7 6-7 doubles match with Canadian Victoria Mboko on Monday, and her fatigue showed against the Italian as Gauff lost in just over 90 minutes.
The American No 1 put up more of a fight in the first set, but was broken three times in the second set by the impressive Italian, who entered the contest as a lucky loser but now picks up a first win in four tries against Gauff.
After crashing out of both the singles and doubles in two days, Gauff will have a chance to redeem herself in five days time when she enters the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Cocciaretto admitted in her on-court interview that her attention isn’t wholly on the tennis this week with the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics currently being held in her home country.
“This week is a little bit different for us in Italy,” she said. “Because now I’m more focused on the Winter Olympics than on the tournament, cheering for the Italian athletes. Maybe that was the key, that’s why I’m playing better. But jokes apart, playing more matches helps you to win more matches, for sure.”
Cocciaretto has been inspired by her friend Sofia Goggia
Cocciaretto has been cheering on her friend Sofia Goggia, who took the bronze medal in Sunday’s women’s downhill skiing event.
“Now we are in contact,” she said. “We always send messages and FaceTime to talk about our sports and how you manage some things. She gives me a lot of advice.
“I love how they approach the sport. They have fear of nothing. They’re focused a lot and they put themselves after everything. If I have a child in the future, I will put him or her in skiing!”
Swiatek breezes through to round of 16
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Highlights of Iga Swiatek against Janice Tjen at the Qatar Open
World No 2 Iga Swiatek made quick work of her second-round match against Indonesian Janice Tjen, storming to a 6-0 6-3 win to advance to the round of 16.
“It’s always nice to start a tournament in a solid way and I’m ready for every match,” Swiatek said when asked about this streak by the media in Doha. “I think that’s the reason for that. I don’t take anything for granted, so even first rounds or second rounds, I treat them as super important matches and as a challenge. So I’m ready for it from the beginning.”
The tournament’s top seed will now face Australian Daria Kasatkina in the round of 16.
Swiatek leads the head-to-head 6-1 over Kasatkina and has won their last six meetings without dropping a set. But she is not taking the match lightly.
“Honestly I try not to think about head-to-head because every match is a different story,” Swiatek said. “She can come to the match feeling that she has nothing to lose. There are different ways the match can go, and I wouldn’t say that focusing on the last results gives a lot. I’d rather stay ready for the challenge and not really think about the previous ones.”
By the numbers
Swiatek extended her streak of consecutive opening-match wins at WTA 1000 events to 32. Her last opening-match loss at a WTA 1000 came in Cincinnati in 2021 against Ons Jabeur
Swiatek recorded her 36th 6-0 set at WTA 1000 events, the most by any player since the format’s introduction in 2009
Swiatek is now 72-0 in opening matches across her last 72 WTA events played, including the United Cup and WTA Finals. Her last opening match loss at a WTA event came against Maria Sakkari at the 2021 WTA Finals in Guadalajara
Rybakina earns 400th career match-win
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Highlights of Elena Rybakina against Xinyu Wang
Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina continued her winning run with victory over Wang Xinyu.
Ten days after claiming her second Grand Slam title in Melbourne, Rybakina recovered from 4-2 down in the second set to beat China’s Wang 6-2 6-4 to extend her winning streak to eight and record her 400th career match-win.
“That’s a nice statistic,” Rybakina said in her on-court interview. “It’s a lot of matches played. But yeah, it’s incredible. I’m just happy again that I can play and feel happy. I’m just enjoying every time I’m playing now on the court.”
Rybakina is playing some of the best tennis of her career and the first set was more of the same as she took it for the loss of just two games.
But she was made to work by the world No 227, who surprisingly broke at 2-2 in the second set, but was eventually pegged back by Rybakina at 4-4, allowing the Kazakh to eventually secure her safe passage into the next round with another break of serve shortly after.
Rybakina will face Qinwen Zheng in the third round after the former Olympic gold medallist defeated her second straight American opponent in Alycia Parks in her return to action.
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