daniel chigunwe
Coco Gauff (pictured right) got her WTA Finals campaign off to the perfect start and then dropped a marriage proposal revelation during her on-court interview.
Playing for the first time since injuring her shoulder at the China Open at the beginning of October, Gauff required just 57 minutes to brush aside Ons Jabeur in their match in the Chetumal Group, winning 6-0, 6-1.
The reigning US Open champion broke in games two, four and six of the opening set and in games four and six of the second set before wrapping up the win on her fourth match point.
But it was during the post-match interview that she dropped the bombshell, although it was just a proposal from a fan in Mexico.
“I honestly wasn’t expecting as much support today, I know Ons has a lot of fans. I got a marriage proposal yesterday so I’m feeling the love here in Cancun,” she said.
“ . . . I appreciate you guys and hopefully we can get a lot more people to come as the week continues.”
Much like Gauff, Jabeur has also had her injury woes in recent weeks and there was initially doubt over her participation in the season-ending event.
She made it to the court on Monday, but never really got going.
“Ons is a great player, so I felt really unsteady the whole match even though it didn’t (look) like that,” Gauff said.
“But I’m just happy to finally get a win here in this event.”
Jabeur paid tribute to her opponent after the match, saying: “She played really well. She played a correct match, didn’t make a lot of mistakes. On my part, I did make a lot of mistakes.”
In the other match in Chetumal Group, world No 2 Iga Swiatek overcame a shaky start to defeat Marketa Vondrousova 7-6 (7-3), 6-0.
The four-time Grand Slam winner, who is hoping to beat Aryna Sabalenka to the year-end No 1 ranking, found herself 5-2 down in the opening set and Vondrousova twice served for the set only for the Pole to break back.
Once she found her rhythm she proved unstoppable.
“Honestly, even in the first part of the match I wasn’t feeling like I was playing bad,” Swiatek said.
“I just felt like I was making mistakes on the last shots within the rally.
“I felt that there was, for sure, room for improvement, but I didn’t need to change a lot. So I just wanted to be more precise and more solid . . . not play risky.”
Up next is a mouth-watering Swiatek against Gauff clash while Vondrousova and Jabeur will meet in the other game and only victory will do in order to stay alive in the tournament. – tennis365
Bongani Ndlovu