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With French Open a week away, Coco Gauff wins first 2 clay titles on same day

Jack Baer
·Staff writer
·2-min read

It took Coco Gauff 17 years to win her first clay court title. Her second came about two and a half hours later.

The American wunderkind not only captured her first career singles title on a clay court at the Emilia-Romagna Open on Saturday, she added a doubles title to record a sweep not seen at her age since 2004.

Her first win came against Wang Qiang, winning her second WTA title 6-1, 6-3. She only needed 74 minutes for the win, winning 76 percent of her first-serve points and shutting out Wang on four break points.

Gauff was back on the court soon after, winning the doubles title alongside longtime partner Caty McNally.

This comes just a week after Gauff's first semifinal on clay at the Italian Open, though that included a walkover win over Ashleigh Barty.

Gauff has been one of the biggest rising stars in tennis since reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2019 at 15 years old. While all of her best tournament performances since have come on hard courts, a sweep on clay is a good sign with the French Open just a week away.

From ESPN:

"It means a lot, especially on clay, which is not really I feel like a surface that people associate me with," Gauff said, before adding with a laugh: "It feels good. I like the dirt now. I always talk about it, how I don't like it, but I like it now."

Gauff has appeared just once at the French Open in her young career, missing out on qualifying in 2019 and reaching the second round last year.

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