(Auckland) American Coco Gauff, world No.7, will approach the Australian Open with “a lot of confidence” in a week after outclassing Spain’s Rebeka Masarova 6-1, 6-1 in the WTA tournament final on Sunday. of Auckland, contested in the rain.
Gauff, 18, who won her third title on the circuit, did not drop a single set during this tournament held in New Zealand.
“It gives me a lot of confidence. You never know how the first week will go — it can be good or very bad. But I think it’s been a great week,” she said.
“It’s thanks to the good off-season that I had. Thanks to my coach, who clearly knows what he is doing,” Gauff said of his coach Diego Moyano.
Against a 130-rated playere world rank and coming from the qualifications, the young American knew how to combine power and patience in a meeting marked by two long interruptions.
Showing the kind of form that took her to the French Open final seven months ago, with her methodical groundstrokes, Gauff should be one of the favorites for the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, which will begin in Melbourne on January 16.
The Atlanta native showed composure, unfazed by the stormy weather that plagued Auckland throughout the week.
Two of its five matches had to be played indoors, while two others were disrupted by rain, including the final, which started nearly two hours late.
Gauff was serving for set point in the first set when another downpour forced the players to stop for more than two hours.
The extended match seemed to mentally and physically exhaust Masarova, 23, whose first appearance in a WTA tournament final was her seventh match in eight days, including qualifying.
PHOTO DAVID ROWLAND, AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE
Viktoria Masarova
The Basel native said fatigue played a part and she was “disappointed” with her performance.
However, she was full of praise for Gauff: “Obviously Coco is playing amazing and hasn’t really given me a chance,” said the former 2016 Roland-Garros junior champion.
“The few chances I had, she played them amazingly, congratulations to her,” Masarova said.
“It was a long week too, with waiting, stopping and starting again. I think I warmed up 25 times in total,” explained the Spaniard.