Coco Gauff dumped out at Luxembourg after maiden WTA title win

Teenage sensation Coco Gauff failed to follow up on her maiden WTA tournament win after crashing out in the first round 6-4, 6-0 to Anna Blinkova in Luxembourg on Wednesday. “I’m very happy with my performance. I didn’t make a lot of mistakes and I had the right tactics. I was calm and I did my job well today,” said Russian eighth seed Blinkova.

“I was very focused. I know she’s a great player and I knew she was coming off a WTA tournament win, so I was well prepared.” Gauff, made headlines around the world on Sunday when she conquered her first career title in Linz, Austria, aged 15 years and seven months. She became the youngest player to win a WTA event since Czech Nicole Vaidisova, who triumphed in Vancouver and Tashkent two months apart in 2004 as a 15-year-old, and shot up 39 places in the WTA rankings to number 71.

However, Blinkova, herself just 19, was too strong for the young American, breaking Gauff’s resistance in the first set before crushing her to love in the second and setting up a second round match against Germany’s Tatjana Maria. The world number 66 lost the first game but took command of the match shortly after with a service to love and a break of serve, which she followed up with another break two games later.

Blinkova served out the rest of the set and then breezed past Gauff in the second, dropping just eight points to cruise into the next round.

First Published: Oct 16, 2019 23:23 IST