Coco Gauff improved drastically on her serve today and that instantly paid off as the world No. 3 ousted Jasmine Paolini 6-3 6-2 to register her maiden win at this year's WTA Finals and keep her chances of qualifying for the semifinal.
In the first set, the American tennis star blew an early break but quickly corrected it by taking Paolini's serve in the eighth game for a 5-3 lead and serving out for the opener in the following game.
With a first set in her bag, Gauff did even better in the second set as she impressively won five consecutive games from 1-2 to get the job done in straight sets.
Gauff now stands at 1-1 in her WTA Finals group. In her group-stage finale, the top-ranked American female tennis player will meet Aryna Sabalenka - in what is expected to be a real showdown. And while the 21-year-old still needs to see how the Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula match will unfold tonight, she will very likely need to beat the Belarusian to reach the semifinal stage in Riyadh.
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Gauff limited her double-fault count to just three
Two days ago, Gauff delivered a brutal serving display as she blasted 17 unforced errors and lost her serve nine times during a three-set loss to Pegula. Afterward, the reigning French Open champion vowed to learn from that display and do better against Paolini. Today, she had only three double faults for the entire match.
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"Ive just got to learn from it and move on I will try to start by winning the next match," the 21-year-old said after the Pegula loss.
Gauff kept word and did exactly that today.
