“I’ll lose more matches back to back, it’s going to happen,” Coco Gauff once confessed after her Doha and Dubai exits in March, following her Australian Open quarterfinal loss to Paula Badosa. Back then, she fell to Marta Kostyuk and McCartney Kessler, marking a rare stumble for the young star. Fast forward, and her own prophecy now haunts her again, two straight defeats, including Canadian Open and Cincinnati heartbreaks, where back-to-back Round of 16 and quarterfinal exits mirrored her earlier struggles. Gauff’s words echo louder now, a reminder that even champions must weather storms before rising stronger.

Jasmine Paolini pulled off a stunning comeback at the Cincinnati Open, overcoming an ankle scare and a brief lapse of focus to topple Coco Gauff 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. It marked her third victory over the American in 2025, cementing her dominance while denying Gauff a much-needed breakthrough on the North American hard-court swing.

For Gauff, the reigning Roland Garros champion, the loss adds to her Canadian Open exit, leaving her still searching for a semifinal run this summer. As she turns her eyes to New York, the U.S. Open carries weight, her chance to secure a second major after her Flushing Meadows triumph in 2023. Still, Gauff admits the grind is real!

After bowing out of Cincinnati in a stunning three-set battle, Coco Gauff faced the press with a mix of honesty and perspective. When asked about her loss, she reflected on the weight of expectation that follows a Grand Slam champion. “When you have a slam like now, compared to maybe before my US Open run, like it’s a little bit easier the rest of the year, because, now not everyone not calling you here bad because here like winning a slam is fine if you are having a good year or not, and not the other tournaments as well. It doesn’t just go for me; it goes for all the players,” Gauff said, her words carrying both relief and reality.

She didn’t stop there. Gauff reminded fans of the brutal demands of the tour, pushing back against the notion of invincibility. “So for me, I think sometimes, tennis fans want us to win like every week. But we’re playing 11 months. It’s not that easy, so it’s completely normal for a player to have a good 3-4 weeks, then maybe a not-so-good 3-4 weeks just because the way our season is built,” she added, striking a chord that resonates across locker rooms worldwide.

Yet beneath her candid words lies a brewing concern. Gauff’s serve, once a weapon, has faltered at key moments. She coughed up 16 double faults in the loss, echoing her struggles from the Canadian Open, where she piled up 42 across three matches, including 23 against Danielle Collins. While Cincinnati began with a sense of control, Friday reminded everyone that her serve remains a ticking time bomb heading into the US Open.

On the other side of the net, Jasmine Paolini celebrated a defining victory. Improving her H2H against Gauff to 3-2, the Italian stormed into her third WTA 1000 semifinal of the year. Already a champion at her home Italian Open and the reigning Roland Garros doubles queen, Paolini now looks ahead to a clash with Veronika Kudermetova. 

With her Cincinnati run alive, she admitted the moment was special, sharing her thoughts on what it meant to topple Gauff on such a stage.

Jasmine Paolini shared her thoughts after winning against Coco Gauff

For a fleeting moment, it all seemed destined to go Coco Gauff’s way. The American stormed through the first set with authority, racing to a 6-2 win. She broke Paolini’s serve three times, struck two aces, and dominated with 82.4 percent of first-serve points won. It was the kind of start that suggested control, rhythm, and inevitability.

But tennis rarely sticks to scripts. The second set turned into a tug of war, with both players holding serve in a tense exchange. Gauff’s defense and athleticism hinted at superiority, just as in her previous hard-court wins over Paolini, but cracks began to show. Her first-serve percentage dipped to 53.6, the double faults crept up to five, and Paolini pounced, breaking Gauff three straight times to steal the set 6-4.

The final act was chaos wrapped in drama. Gauff’s serve collapsed instantly, three double faults in her opening game gifting Paolini the edge. The Italian twisted her ankle slightly but pushed through without pause, her grit matching the moment. Gauff clawed back, breaking Paolini’s serve at 3-1 and snapping a streak of five consecutive breaks. For a moment, the crowd believed in another surge.

But Paolini refused to fold. At 4-3, she broke Gauff yet again, the seventh and final time, to seize command. With fire in her eyes, she closed out the match 6-3 as Gauff’s forehand crashed into the net, her 62nd unforced error of a bruising contest. Paolini’s numbers told a strange story, seven breaks, seven winners, but belief, not stats, carried her through.

“It was so tough. Coco was playing amazing and at the beginning, I was like running and try to put the ball inside the court but it was really tough, you know,” Paolini admitted later. Tough, yes, but triumphant. 

Now, with the US Open looming, the question burns: can the Italian ride this fire past Veronika Kudermetova and into the final at Cincinnati?