Before the Cincinnati Open clash against two-time slam queen Coco Gauff, Italian star Jasmine Paolini was hardly confident about her chances. Despite being victorious in their last meeting in Rome, Paolini was not sure if she would be able to pull this off. “It is tough to play here. You know it’s so different here, it’s so fast,” she referred to the hard court. But on Friday, the Italian bested the World No. 2 in a thrilling comeback with a score line of 2-6, 6-4, 6-3. Now, it’s going to be Paolini in the semis. And Gauff? Well, she has invited an inevitable threat to herself. The six-time slam queen Iga Swiatek.

In a crucial quarterfinal clash, Paolini managed to topple Gauff in a cliffhanger battle. After the American snatched the first set, Paolini leveled the scores before confirming her semifinal ticket in Cincinnati. The Italian is now 3-2 in the H2H tally against Gauff, who’s been a former title winner at the WTA 1000 event. She won the trophy in 2023 after defeating Karolina Muchova in the summit clash.

And now, Gauff’s quarterfinal loss may hurt her even more. Reason? The game of rankings. Right now, Gauff is placed second on the WTA rankings list, but she may lose this position by next week. And it’s Iga Swiatek who could make it happen. The Polish has made it to her maiden Cincinnati semifinal after she bested Anna Kalinskaya in the R8 on Friday. Now, if the six-time major winner, who’s No. 3 right now, beats her semifinal opponent, Elena Rybakina, and then wins the summit clash, too, she will become No. 2 while dethroning Gauff.

Gauff has 7,669 ranking points at the moment compared to Swiatek’s 6,933 on the list. However, in case of the latter clinching the trophy in Cincinnati, she will gain 1,000 additional points – enough to push the American off her current spot.

But guess what? Gauff’s got another reason to worry about. Against Paolini, her biggest weakness also surfaced, once again, leading her to an unexpected exit from the event. It may haunt her going into the US Open, too.

Coco Gauff’s double-fault nightmare resurfaces ahead of the US Open

In case you missed keeping track of stats, Coco Gauff committed 16 double faults against Jasmine Paolini in the QF battle. Paolini restricted the count to just two. Simply put, the American WTA star has failed to overcome her problem of landing inaccurate first serves.

According to OptaAce, Gauff seems to be competing against herself in 2025 when it comes to committing double faults. Back in March, at the Indian Wells, she ended up with 38. Then in Rome, the figure increased to 42. Earlier this month, at the Canadian Open in Montreal, she delivered a worrying result. In just three matches, Gauff committed 43 double faults.

Speaking of the campaign in Cincinnati, Gauff committed eight DF in her opening match against Xinyu Wang. Then, against Lucia Bronzetti, the American improved it somehow and kept the figure at just three. However, the problem became out of control again as the count touched 16 on Friday against Paolini, reaching the total at 27.

Clearly, Gauff needs to do something regarding this growing weakness. At the US Open, she will struggle a lot in case her opponents try to exploit this aspect during her serves. Do you think she can, though? Share your thoughts with us.