Tennis, that sport so complicated to decipher, offers a great collapse in Riyadh while elevating Coco Gauff, the youngest teacher since the Russian Maria Sharapova, 17 years old in 2004, beat Serena in Los Angeles. The American celebrates (3-6, 6-4 and 7-6(2) and in the background, she had everything in her favor and inexplicably failed: it served to win, she had tried to break the lead in the second partial and had raised two match points in the third, when she hinted that she could escape from the mud. However, the mentality of the North American ended up prevailing, stubborn and resilient, clinging to the duel with claws and, finally, worthy and deserved champion. 20 years and almost 4.5 million more euros in the bank account, and he now takes up the baton of his compatriot Williams, who signed his fifth victory a decade ago in Singapore.
This is how this experience in Saudi Arabia closes, marking this last week of a tournament covered in gold, but rather insipid and without much spark, taking into account the wear and tear suffered by the competitors and that at this point in the season the heads are playing so much or more than rackets. Gauff has known how to play his cards. He simply never lost faith. Without particularly seductive or purposeful tennis, but rather speculative and temporizing, behind the bush waiting for the ruling, its consistency reinforces the elevated status it has been acquiring, with a Grand Slam already in its pocket (US Open 2023) and a master scepter that pairs him with his compatriots Evert (4), Austin, Navratilova (8), Davenport, Venus and Serena (5). His name shines now and the United States, so eager for glory after the postserenismocontinues imagining another potential heroine.
In a scenario as extreme as the Masters, technically simpler recipes like Coco’s usually lead to good results because this, not infrequently, involves resistance and in terms of strength, physique and putting in one more ball, stay on her feet, the champion knows how to handle herself like a fish in water. Zheng had it in her face, as aggressive as it was erratic, a maximum risk bet, and she ended up stumbling due to her own acceleration. The Asian, a finalist this year in Australia and winner of the Paris Games, has plenty of mobility, but sometimes she errs on the side of wanting to go too fast when the wind blows in her favor. In the end, errors everywhere: 64. Instead, Gauff relied on patience, a magnificent ally and essential for this continued flight that he began to acquire last year.
From there, solid steps and a final stretch that returns her to the foreground. Recent champion in Beijing and in January in Auckland, she is a constant in the final seasons of tournaments and the strongest alternative to the duopoly formed by Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, the one and two in the world. He has beaten both of them in Riyadh. Where wrist and hand were lacking, conviction came, and it is reaffirmed on a hard court, a territory in which it has not lost a single final. Plenary: eight out of eight. This is how he rises to prominence in Arabia and this is what happens to Swiatek in the list of winners. All honor and all guts, she rises triumphant in one of the longest masterful endings, after 3h 04m. “I never gave up,” he summarizes. Called to be one of the references due to her precocious emergence when she was only 15 years old, the promise is gaining shape.
“Sometimes you might think you’re not going to win, but I just pushed that thought away. I told myself: ‘another point, another opportunity,’ she says. “I have been in situations like this in the past, in which I have been able to turn it around and I only hoped to be able to do it again today,” adds the one from Florida, whose social commitment clashes with the farewell message issued in Riyadh, where attendance at matches throughout these days, with 400 people in the stands on some occasions: “This was my first time in this country and I had a better time than I expected. “It is an honor to win here and I thank the fans for coming out and supporting women’s tennis.”
