marked the first to feature two Americans in a Cincinnati Open women’s singles final in 56 years.<\/a><\/p>\nGauff, a native of Delray Beach, Florida, previously won the Cincinnati Open in 2023, marking the first-ever 1000-level title of her career. She would later go on to win the US Open just weeks later.<\/p>\n
However, her most recent win comes after an uncharacteristically rough start to the year for Gauff, who had yet to win a tournament title in 2026 prior to Sunday.<\/p>\n
Gauff also previously won the women’s singles title at Roland Garros in 2025 and 1000-level titles at the Wuhan Open in 2025 and the China Open in 2024.<\/p>\n
Upon being awarded the Rookwood Cup after the match, Gauff took the opportunity to immediately thank Pegula, noting that she had been a true friend to her in her early career.<\/p>\n
“Well, this is cool,” said Gauff with a smile to the crowd at the Lindner Family Tennis Center during her victory speech. “First, I want to congratulate Jess. You’re an incredible player \u2014 that goes without saying. Always playing you is tough. I don’t know if all the balls were going in on my side today. But I don’t like seeing you on the other side of the court. But I like playing with you. So I just want to say congratulations. You’re an incredible person and player.”<\/p>\n
Gauff then went on to thank her team, noting that they helped turn her around after she was frustrated with her results last year at the Cincinnati Open and US Open upon being eliminated prematurely in both.<\/p>\n
“Next, I would like to thank my team… and my family back at home,” continued Gauff. “What a difference a year can make. Especially JC was sitting in that box and we were not in a good scenario last year, and we brought on Gavin, and I feel like they’re the dynamic duo, so it’s really a great joy to play tennis. You guys make the sport so fun for me and I think along with that, that’s just helped me to become a better player and person. So thank you guys for holding it down.”<\/p>\n
Gauff then went on to thank her family, noting that she called them first-thing after the match as organizers went to set up the trophy presentation ceremony.<\/p>\n
“And thank you to my parents back at home, my brothers, grandparents, all the family and friends that have been cheering for me, praying for me,” continued Gauff. “I FaceTimed them right after on the bench, so it was good to see their faces and them smile. Usually, I just get a ‘good job’ text, so it was nice to get a little bit more than that.”<\/p>\n
Afterwards, Gauff went on to describe an experience where she was in the parking lot of the Cincinnati Open in tears after being frustrated with her performance last year in the tournament. However, Gauff concluded by saying that she always loved visiting and playing tennis in Cincinnati, which she called one of the most welcoming venues on tour.<\/p>\n
“I think all the players feel the love here. It’s one of the easiest tournaments and I always enjoy coming here and thank you to all the volunteers,” concluded Gauff as she went on to say that she would return for 2027. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff wins her second Cincinnati Open women’s singles title after decisive win in straight sets MASON, Ohio…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[4793,21112,185,1884,21114,99,2143,21113,7298,21115,13060,1875,21116,1127,2820],"class_list":["post-56330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-coco-gauff","tag-career","tag-cincinnati-open-woman","tag-coco-gauff","tag-family","tag-incredible-player","tag-match","tag-no","tag-second-cincinnati-open-title","tag-single","tag-single-tennis","tag-straight-set","tag-sunday","tag-top-ranked-americans","tag-world","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kurt](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/2d91aae0-7088-482c-9cbb-13c6c42908ac_1715117256.file.png\")
MASON, Ohio \u2014<\/p>\n![\"Image](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/22de847d-9bb5-4df1-aebf-0d0172b4d040.jpg\")
<\/p>\n