On Sunday at the ATP and WTA Washington Open, American teen sensation Coco Gauff and British tennis player Dan Evans both won championships in straight sets.
At the hardcourt competition, a US Open warmup, world number seven Gauff defeated ninth-ranked Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-2, 6-3 to win her fourth WTA championship. Evans, ranked 30th, defeated 37th-ranked Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands 7-5, 6-3.
Gauff, the youngest Washington WTA finalist at age 19, added to his collection of trophies, which already includes victories in 2019 at Linz, 2021 in Parma, and this past January in Auckland.
The victory followed a first-round loss at Wimbledon earlier this month.
Gauff said, “A couple of weeks ago, it was really tough.” We were all affected, and I’m pleased I was able to recover.
Gauff, the runner-up at the 2017 French Open, had previously dropped four of five games against Sakkari, who dropped to 1-7 in WTA finals with her sixth straight defeat.
Sakkari stated, “It’s extremely disheartening, but we didn’t believe I’d be here a month ago.
Evans, a 33-year-old Englishman whose only other ATP victory came in an outdoor Melbourne tournament in 2021, won the Washington tournament to become the first British winner since Tim Henman in 2003.
Evans, who entered this week with only eight tour-level victories for the year, will climb to a new career high of 21st after coming in the US capital on a tour-level losing run of seven games.
“I couldn’t have had this on my mind at the beginning of the week. Fantastic week,” remarked Evans. It is quite important to me. It really does.
Griekspoor was denied his third career victory following victories in’s-Hertogenbosch in June and Pune in January.
Griekspoor said, “First time in DC, making finals, not too bad I guess.”
When Griekspoor, 27, netted a backhand after 53 minutes, Evans broke him in the 12th game to win the first set. Griekspoor, 27, had just saved a set point with an ace that was wide in the 10th game.
In the first set, Evans had 14 winners to only three unforced mistakes.
Lightning interrupted the second set at 2-2, and it wasn’t back on for another two hours and 20 minutes.
Evans broke at love for a 5-3 advantage, and the Dutchman gave away the break on a double fault. A backhand winner and backhand lob winner set up the break.
After one hour and 41 minutes, the Englishman hammered a service winner on his first championship point to win the match after saving four break opportunities in a nail-biting ninth game.
The opening set was won by Gauff, who had not lost a set all week, in 42 minutes, but Sakkari broke Gauff to start the second. In games four and five, they swapped service breaks, but Sakkari double flubbed another opportunity to give Gauff a 3-3 tie.
After 84 minutes, on a backhand winner, Gauff held, broke in the eighth game when Sakkari smashed a forehand past the baseline, and held once more to secure the victory.
At the 2019 Morocco Open, Sakkari, 28, won her lone previous WTA championship.
