Coco Gauff clinches Emilia-Romagna Open title

PARMA: American teenager Coco Gauff won her second career WTA singles title at the Emilia-Romagna Open, dispatching China's Wang Qiang 6-1, 6-3 in Parma on Saturday.

Coco, the world No. 30, needed an hour and 14 minutes to overcome the challenge from the 48th-ranked Chinese and add to her singles title collection, which she started as a lucky loser in Linz in 2019.

The American dropped only one set en route to her title here.

The 17-year-old Coco has excelled on the clay courts in Italy over the past fortnight, with a semi-final run at the Italian Open last week leading to a title triumph this week.

Coco has now won 20 of her last 26 matches on Tour as she rapidly racks up match-wins this season. By contrast, she won 21 matches in 2019 and 2020 combined.

She won more than three-quarters of her first-service points and fended off each and every one of the four break points she faced in her first encounter with the 29-year-old Wang.

Wang had a resurgent week in Parma, as the former World No.12 was just 4-11 on the year coming into the event. The Chinese broke through to her fifth career singles final -- her first since 2018 -- but was unable to win her third career title, and her first outside of her home country.

Coco has a chance to make a clean sweep of the titles in Parma when she pairs with compatriot Caty McNally in the doubles final against No. 2 seeds Darija Jurak (Croatia) and Andreja Klepac (Slovenia). IANS

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