Change coach. Win the next tournament. Just like Coco Joffe drew it.
Taking advantage of what has become one of the biggest rarities in women’s tennis, an off day for Karolina Muchova, Gauff won the China Open title 6-1, 6-3, Sunday in Beijing.
This is no small feat, given the turmoil her tennis life has witnessed over the past month. After losing to Emma Navarro at the US Open, Gauff parted ways with Brad Gilbert, her coach for the past 14 months. Gilbert, a renowned strategist, joined Team Gauff during the summer of 2023 and helped guide her to the best month of her tennis career, including her maiden Grand Slam title in New York.
Enter Matt Daly, the little-known grip specialist, who now works alongside Jean-Christophe Forel, the Frenchman who has trained Gauff on and off since she was 14. Daly, who focuses more on technique than tactics, is on the sidelines because Goff needs more than just strategy. Still only 20 years old, she has technical issues and some mental hiccups with her forehands and serves that can produce a series of errors at the most inopportune times – not that there are any good times to double fault and hit forehands into the net or long. And spacious. Gilbert was a master at hiding these weaknesses, but as opponents figured out how to get rid of them, he and Gauff could do little but watch the number of errors increase until they lost.
Gauff has committed 315 double faults in 2024. The next player in the top 10 is Danielle Collins, 76 behind with 239. She recorded 19 errors in her fourth-round loss to Navarro in New York, and also recorded 11 errors in three sets. She beat Paula Badosa and Yulia Starodubtseva in Beijing, both coming from at least one set down and a break of serve.
Her draining resilience, outstanding athleticism and talent can still carry her to big victories. She now seeks reliable stability on two of the three most important shots in tennis, and she found that, or at least more of it, against Muchova, in a match that the astonishingly talented Czech has yet to discover. Goff scored 24 winners with just eight unforced errors in his last encounter.
“I got my ass kicked today, literally, again,” Muchova, who has been on a roll since the US Open, said during the awards ceremony. Muchova committed 24 unforced errors and achieved only 14 successful shots in both sets.
Karolina Muchova’s impressive performance leading up to the Beijing finals included victories over Aryna Sabalenka and Zeng Qinwen. (Fred Lee/Getty Images)
Gove arrived in Beijing not expecting much. She treats the last six weeks of the season as pre-season, a chance to change and experiment without worrying too much about results, since the tournaments she cares about most are already over. The China Open was supposed to be about preparing for 2025.
She and Carlos Alcaraz visited the Forbidden City in Beijing just before the tournament, and ended up winning the title, with Alcaraz going into a thrilling three-set match against world number one Jannik Sinner in the final.
Gauff earned a break in the round of 16, when Naomi Osaka won the first set but had to withdraw with a lower back injury that became too difficult to deal with in the second set. She came back from a set down in the next two games, then rolled through Muchova.
How Coco Gauff won the China Open
Round nationality result
F
Karolina Muchova
Czech Republic
6-1, 6-3
sixth
Paola Badosa (15)
Spain
4-6, 6-4, 6-2
Qatar Foundation
Yulia Starodubtseva (S)
Ukraine
2-6, 6-2, 6-2
p. 16
Naomi Osaka
Japan
3-6, 6-4, Rt
R32
Katie Poulter
UK
7-5, 6-2
R64
Clara Burrell
France
7-5, 6-3
R128
Farewell
Farewell
Gove would be the first to admit that all is not well. She’s still committing a lot of double faults and her ground game needs work. After Sunday, she also claimed her second WTA 1000 title, the level just below the Grand Slam. She has a 7-0 record in hard court finals (with Muchova’s final record now 1-5) and is a step away from qualifying for the WTA Tour Finals in Riyadh at the end of the season.
“Obviously things are going well,” she said on the court after her win.
(Top image: Fred Lee/Getty Images)
