15-Year-Old Lucky Loser Coco Gauff Claims her First WTA Title at Linz Open 2019

American teenager Coco Gauff claimed her first-ever WTA singles title with a three-set 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 finals victory over Jelena Ostapenko at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz Open 2019 on Sunday.

With this victory, the 15-year-old Cori Gauff becomes the first lucky loser to win a WTA singles title since Olga Danilovic triumphed at the 2018 Moscow River Cup.

Set one

Coco Gauff was tested in her opening service game as Jelena Ostapenko earned two breakpoints but couldn’t take advantage of it as Gauff held her serve. The teenager came back stronger as she broke the Latvian in the next game to take control of the set.

The set did not witness any breakpoints as Coco Gauff went on to claim the opening set 6-3 in just 35 minutes. The American lost only 5 points in her four service games after the first serve game as she had her one hand on the trophy. On the other hand, Jelena Ostapenko was controlling most of the long rallies but she was also missing too many shots as compared to Gauff.

Set two

Jelena Ostapenko held a crucial first serve in the second set after saving a breakpoint. The 22-year-old fought back in the next game to break Gauff for the first time in the match. However, Coco Gauff was back on serve with a rebreak in the next game.

The streak of breaks continued as Jelena broke again to get a commanding lead in the second set at 4-1. The 2017 French Open champion looked unstoppable as she broke Gauff for the third consecutive time before closing the set on her serve at 6-1 in just 29 minutes. Cori Gauff was unable to hold a single service game in the whole set, while, Jelena Ostapenko certainly had the momentum on her side.

Set three

Coco Gauff was back on serve in the deciding set as she earned an early break and held her opening two service games to get on the driver seat with a 3-0 lead.

Cori then went up to break Ostapenko for the second time in the set before missing two match points and a chance to bagel Ostapenko in the sixth game. While serving for the championship, Coco’s serve was broken as Jelena Ostapenko fought back to neutralize one of the two breaks of serve.

After her father’s inspirational words, Gauff went on to break the Latvian and claimed the deciding set 6-2 to win the championship.