Tennis News: Cori Gauff joins an elite group after achieving a convincing 6-2, 6-4 victory over Jessica Pegula in the 2026 Cincinnati Open final.
By winning the final match of the Cincinnati Open, which brought together the first two host players in the “Queen City” since 1970, the fourth seed not only won her first title of the season, she also equaled Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka’s achievements as two tennis players who won in Cincinnati. She previously won the WTA level 1000 tournament title in the 2023 season, the same season in which she then won the first Grand Slam title of her career at the US Open.
“I think with each match, I feel more and more confident in trusting the strength that I put in and practice,” Gauff said.
“Knowing that I can find a way to win these matches — and things are going to be tough in New York for sure — but also realizing the quality of the wins I achieved this week, and the fact that I was able to overcome the challenges despite not playing at my best, while also knowing that I can play the great tennis that I felt this week.”
The fourth seed’s performance throughout the Cincinnati Open is worthy of placing him in the elite ranks. After losing the first set of her opening match against Liudmila Samsonova, she won the next 12 games in a row. In this series of games, he only lost a total of 32 games.
This trend continued in the final match which lasted 1 hour 14 minutes, where the 2025 French Open champion never fell behind in scoring. He had led 5-0 in less than 30 hours on court and the situation only became a little complicated when he was already leading 6-2, 5-2.
She failed to finish the match on serve in the eighth game of the second set, but then broke Pegula’s serve without dropping a point to seal the win.
In her speech as runner up, Pegula called the fourth seed “like a bouncing wall” in that day’s match.
“It doesn’t feel good to have to face it. In fact, in my opinion, my game wasn’t bad,” said Pegula.
Gauff’s final match statistics confirmed Pegula’s assessment. She won 65 percent of her first serve points, higher than Pegula’s 47 percent, and converted five of her six break point opportunities. He continued to press when the third seed held serve, while he himself only faced a deuce situation once.
Article Tags: jessica pegula, cincinnati open, cori gauff
Published by Ligaolahraga.com at https://www.ligaolahraga.com/tenis/cori-gauff-besar-klub-elite-usai-amankan-gelar-kedua-di-cincinnati