Iga Swiatek reasserted her head-to-head dominance of Coco Gauff, earning a 6-0, 7-5 win in Chetumal Group play at the WTA Finals on Wednesday in Cancun, Mexico.
Swiatek, a Polish player who is seeded second, improved to 2-0 to sit in first place in the group. She improved to 9-1 in her career against Gauff.
Gauff, a U.S. teen seeded third, fell to 1-1, tied with sixth-seeded Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, who defeated seventh-seeded Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-3 on Wednesday in a rematch of this summer’s Wimbledon final.
Vondrousova has lost both of her matches, but she was not officially eliminated from contention.
Two groups of four players are competing in separate round robins in the tournament’s first phase. The two top players in each group move on to the semifinals on Saturday, with the Saturday winners competing for the championship on Sunday.
The matchup between Swiatek, the reigning French Open champion, and Gauff, the newly crowned U.S. Open champion, got off to a one-sided start. Gauff committed 11 unforced errors while recording just two winners as she was thrashed in the first set.
Swiatek became a bit more erratic in the second set, committing 16 unforced errors after she had just six in the opening set. However, 20 more unforced errors from Gauff allowed Swiatek to seal the win.
“I would say this match wasn’t consistent, in terms of the level,” Swiatek said. “So for sure, adjusting to everything that happened was the most important thing. It took me a while because I was a break down in the second set.
“I’m happy that I could actually problem-solve a little the way to win these last games. And the key was, maybe being confident and mentally not focusing on the score, but really just sticking with the plan that worked in the first set.”
In the day’s other match, Vondrousova couldn’t repeat the result she produced in the Wimbledon title match, when she downed Jabeur 6-4, 6-4. On Wednesday, Jabeur put just 47 percent of her first serves in play, but she made up for it with a sizeable advantage in winners (24-13).
The Bacalar Group returns to action on Thursday. Fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula (2-0) will oppose eighth-seeded Greek Maria Sakkari (0-2), and top-seeded Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (1-1) will face fourth-seeded Kazakhstani Elena Rybakina (1-1).
–Field Level Media