my secret to been world no1.
At the ecotrans Ladies Open in Berlin, after an hour and twenty minutes, Coco Gauff defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6 (8-6) 6-2 thanks to three set points saved in the opening set.
In the opening set, Alexandrova rallied from a 2-4 down to force a tie-break. In the tie-break, Alexandrova took a 6-3 lead when Gauff committed her first double fault in the first set. Alexandrova committed two double faults, a backhand wide, and a botched backhand return before Gauff saved the three set points. Another double fault by Alexandrova let Gauff to seal the first set.
In the second set, Gauff only gave up four points when serving and broke twice, at love in the first game of the match and at 15 in the eighth.
Although Pegula leads Siniakova 2-1, the Czech player prevailed in their lone prior meeting, 6-3 5-7 6-4 on grass at Bad Homburg in 2021.
Gauff exacted revenge against Alexandrova, the US rival she lost to 6-4, 6-0 in the Berlin Round of 16 in 2023.
Gauff made it to the tournament’s quarterfinals for the second time in her career; she was defeated by Ons Jabeur in the Berlin semifinal in 2022. In this year’s German grass competition semifinal, Gauff and Jabeur will resume their battle. Jabeur triumphed over Linda Noskova 6-3 6-4 6-7 (5-7).
“I just tell myself to get one when I’m behind in tie-breaks, and then one point turns into two.” All I could hope for was that she wouldn’t get an A on one of those points. Gauff remarked, “I was just hoping I could get a ball in the court.”
After defeating Donna Vekic 6-4 7-5 to advance to her seventh quarterfinal of the 2024 season, Jessica Pegula, Gauff’s doubles partner, also made it to the quarterfinals.
Pegula scheduled a match for Katerina Siniakova, who secured her 10th victory against a player ranked in the top ten with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Zheng Qinwen, the sixth seed. After competing on grass in Birmingham in 2015 and Bad Homburg in 2021 and 2023, Siniakova has advanced to her fourth quarterfinal. She won the Bad Homburg last year, defeating Lucia Bronzetti in the championship match.
