Coco Gauff Sweeps Singles And Doubles Titles At Emilia-Romagna Open On Clay In Italy Ahead Of French Open

Coco Gauff
Coco Gauff

She needed just 74 minutes to win her singles title

By Gabriel Fernandez

Coco Gauff added to her trophy cabinet on Saturday when she defeated Wang Qiang at the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, Italy, 6-1, 6-3. It was the first clay-court title of your young career, and the second singles title she’s won.

In addition to the solo championship, she also got another title this weekend, winning a doubles title with Caty McNally. The pair defeated Adreja Klepac and Darija Jurak 6-3, 6-2. Her accomplishment makes Gauff the youngest player to complete the singles/doubles sweep since Maria Sharapova did it in 2004 in England. For reference, that was the year that Gauff was born.

“I feel like all week I was just thinking about [winning both], especially when we got to the semifinals and you’re thinking about it, and you’re like it would be pretty cool to win both the singles and doubles titles. And I’m happy I was able to do that today,” Gauff said.

Her improvement on clay has been rather rapid. The 17-year-old is just a week removed from reaching the first clay semifinal of her career, when she did so at the Italian Open. Next up is the grandaddy of them all — on clay courts — at the French Open  which starts May 24.

Originally published at cbssports.com

%d bloggers like this: