WORLD No. 3 Coco Gauff and No. 2 Iga Swiatek of Poland won their respective opening matches of the Orange Group at the WTA Finals Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
Gauff posted a 6-3, 6-2 victory over No. 6 Jessica Pegula, while Swiatek rallied from a first-set misstep to notch a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic.
Gauff and Swiatek will square off on Tuesday, with the winner taking control of the Orange Group. Swiatek holds a commanding 11-1 head-to-head record against Gauff.
Gauff held a 16-8 edge in the winners and converted five of her eight break points to end the match in 75 minutes.
“I thought we both were playing high level,” Gauff said. “I just think I was able to break through on the more important points.”
Swiatek, in turn, struggled in her first match in two months, falling in the first set and trailing 3-0 in the second before she flipped the switch.
“Even though I played a lot of those (practice) matches,” Swiatek said. “I kind of forgot for a while how it is to feel all those things, a bit different stress and emotions. For sure, I needed some time to adapt. The most important thing was that even though it happened, I managed to fight through that. And was patient enough to wait to get better.”
“I thought we both were playing high level,” Gauff said. “I just think I was able to break through on the more important points.”
Swiatek, in turn, struggled in her first match in two months, falling in the first set and trailing 3-0 in the second before she flipped the switch.
“Even though I played a lot of those (practice) matches,” Swiatek said. “I kind of forgot for a while how it is to feel all those things, a bit different stress and emotions. For sure, I needed some time to adapt. The most important thing was that even though it happened, I managed to fight through that. And was patient enough to wait to get better.”
Swiatek broke Krejcikova early in the third set and seized a 5-0 lead en route to winning the match.
“Honestly, I just focused on getting the balls in,” Swiatek said of the early going. “I needed to focus on the easy stuff. My main goal was just to be solid.
“I’m happy that I won because at the beginning I felt a little bit rusty.”
Krejcikova lamented letting the match get away from here.
“It definitely wasn’t the best tennis I can play, but I was really quite solid,” Krejcikova said. “I just feel I lost a little bit the momentum of the match and obviously, I’m not really sure if it was me or Iga. She just came up and started to play more aggressively, started to hit her targets better.
