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French Open: Coco Gauff reaches first Grand Slam singles final

Less than three full years after she played in her first Grand Slam tournament, American teenager Coco Gauff will play for one of the four biggest trophies in tennis on Saturday at the French Open.

French Open: Coco Gauff reaches first Grand Slam singles final

French Open: Coco Gauff reaches first Grand Slam singles final (Picture Credits - IANS)

American teenager Coco Gauff ended the winning run of Italy’s Martina Trevisan in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 to reach her first Grand Slam singles final at Roland Garros here on Thursday.

Less than three full years after she played in her first Grand Slam tournament, American teenager Coco Gauff will play for one of the four biggest trophies in tennis on Saturday at the French Open.

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The American bids to become the seventh player all-time to win the girls’ and women’s singles titles in Paris, but to do it, she’ll have to snap the 34-match unbeaten run of World No.1 Iga Swiatek.

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Stopping the Cinderella run of unseeded Italian Martina Trevisan in Thursday’s semifinals, Gauff, who turned 18 in March, is the youngest player to reach the final in Paris since Kim Clijsters in 2001. She’s also the youngest finalist at any Grand Slam since a 17-year-old Maria Sharapova stormed to the Wimbledon title in 2004.

The No.18 seed hasn’t dropped a set in her six wins to get this far, and lost just four games against the Italian in 68 minutes to earn her latest career milestone.

Gauff lost to Trevisan in their only previous meeting: a three-set epic in the second round of Roland Garros in 2020, when the Italian first went on to make the quarterfinals.

There would be no repeat in the biggest career match for both players.

After a tight opening six games in which the players traded service breaks twice, Gauff won nine of the last 10 games to take a 6-3, 6-1 victory and snap Trevisan’s 10-match winning streak. She won three straight games to wrap up the opener, in which she won 12 of the last 14 points.

A marathon, 15-minute fourth game in the second set also helped get Gauff over the line; she denied Trevisan four chances to level at 2-2 in a seven-deuce service game before breaking her. She later served out victory to love.

In her last five service games in the match, Gauff lost just four points. Though Gauff has played in a Grand Slam doubles final before-she and Caty McNally were runners-up at the US Open last summer-she’s into uncharted territory against a favoured opponent now.

(Inputs from IANS)

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