By Adegboyega Adeleye
American teen star, Cori Coco Gauff has bagged the biggest title of her career with a straight-set victory over Karolina Muchova in the Cincinnati Open final.
Gauff secured her third title of the season and followed up her shock win over top seed Iga Swaitek in the semi-final with a 6-3 6-4 win over world number 17, Muchova in Sunday’s final.
The 19-year-old won her fifth career title to win the Southern and Western Open final in a one-hour and 56 minutes enthralling final in Cincinnati.
Gauff’s victory will ensure she climbs to number six in the WTA rankings on Monday as she prepares for the US Open which starts on 28 August.
Seventh seed Gauff broke Muchova – whom she was facing for the first time – three times in the first set and confidently served out the opener to love in her first WTA 1000 final appearance.
“This is unbelievable, especially after everything I went through in the summer in Europe,” Gauff said during the post-match trophy presentation.
“I’m just happy to be here at this moment. I spent a lot of nights alone crying, trying to figure it out.”
“I want to congratulate Karolina for an incredible run in this tournament,” she added. “Hopefully, we’ll play more often, and on a bigger stage than this.”
Gauff becomes the first teenager to win three WTA titles in one year since Bianca Andreescu in 2019.
Muchova showed her battling qualities in the second set as she saved three match points when trailing 5-2 and pulled one break back, but Gauff stood strong to claim victory.
The French Open runner-up will celebrate her birthday on Monday by moving to No. 10 on the WTA rankings.
“When I woke up this morning, the first thing I said was Ouch,’” the 26-year-old Muchova said. “I knew it was going to be a tough task to win, especially against someone like Coco.”
In Cincinnati, she was the tournament’s fourth teenage finalist and first since Vera Zvonareva in 2004. She is the first teenage champion since 17-year-old Linda Tuero in 1968.
In the men’s doubles final, Jamie Murray and New Zealand’s Michael Venus had a championship point against Argentina’s Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni but lost 3-6 6-1 11-9.
In the Cincinnati Open men’s doubles final, Novak Djokovic avenged his Wimbledon final defeat to world number one Carlos Alcaraz by beating the Spaniard in just under four hours.
The 23-time Grand Slam winner survived a match point in the second set before going on to win 5-7 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (7-4).