Coco Gauff’s serving woes continued Friday night in Mason, Ohio, as the world No. 2 served up 16 double faults during a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 defeat to world No. 9 Jasmine Paolini in the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Open. Gauff, the French Open champion, is yet to make a semifinal in the North American hard-court swing, after losing to Victoria Mboko in the round of 16 at the Canadian Open.
“I tried to fight every point, and it worked,” Paolini said on court after her victory. “I’m really happy.”
Advertisement
It was all looking positive in the first set for the American, racing out to a 6-2 lead. She broke Paolini’s serve three times, won 82.4 percent of her first-serve points and hit two aces.
The second set was closer, as both players exchanged service holds. It appeared that Gauff’s relentless athleticism and defense would be too much for Paolini, as in her two previous victories over the Italian on hard courts. But the American’s serve began to wobble as the set progressed, and Paolini broke Gauff three consecutive times to take the match to a decider.
What looked like the decisive moment of the match arrived in the opening game of the third set. Paolini held to take a 1-0 lead, but twisted her ankle in hitting a forehand. She received treatment at the change of ends, but instead of taking advantage in the next game, Gauff served three double faults to hand the Italian a 2-0 lead. An exchange of breaks followed: As soon as Gauff would break Paolini’s serve to get back in the set, Paolini would break right back.
Advertisement
Paolini ultimately broke Gauff at 4-3 to get the chance to serve for the match, which ended with Gauff hitting a forehand into the net. Her 62 unforced errors made up over 70 percent of Paolini’s 85 points won on the night, and the double-fault pattern is a concerning trend coming out of the Canadian Open and now into the U.S. Open in New York. Gauff hit 42 double faults in three matches in Montreal, while her serve was looking under control in Cincinnati until Friday. While she has the tools to get out of matches like this one, she couldn’t use them enough on this occasion.
Paolini improves to a 3-2 head-to-head against Gauff, moving into her third WTA 1,000 semifinal of 2025, after winning her home Italian Open in May. Paolini, the current French Open doubles champion, will face Veronika Kudermetova of Russia Sunday.
Gauff heads to the U.S. Open looking to win her second major of 2025. In 2024, she lost to compatriot Emma Navarro in the round of 16, a defeat which prompted her to fire Brad Gilbert as coach and hire Matt Daly, a grip specialist, to join her team and work on her serve. She hit 19 double faults in that match, and said in her news conference afterward that she could not stand losing matches that way any more.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Advertisement
Tennis, Women’s Tennis
2025 The Athletic Media Company