MONTREAL — Coco Gauff made a successful return to competitors on Tuesday evening, despite the fact that some outdated serving woes got here again along with her.
Gauff needed to overcome 23 double-faults to win for the primary time for the reason that French Open last, outlasting fellow American Danielle Collins 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (2) within the second spherical of the Nationwide Financial institution Open.
Gauff hadn’t performed since shedding within the first spherical at Wimbledon and appeared to have made a change to her serving grip throughout her time away. She struggled with it in the course of the match, hitting some serves that had been properly lengthy and others that had been tender and simply pounced on by the highly effective Collins.
“It was a irritating match for me,” Gauff mentioned. “I felt like I used to be training properly after which I do not suppose I transferred it immediately, however hopefully I bought my dangerous match of the event out of the best way and I might come again stronger the subsequent spherical.”
A balky serve ended her U.S. Open title protection final 12 months, when she dedicated 19 double-faults in a fourth-round loss to Emma Navarro. The serve was much more erratic Tuesday, although Gauff did hit an excellent one to finish the match with an ace.
She is the highest seed in Montreal as a result of withdrawal of top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, the participant Gauff beat to win the French Open in June. Gauff will face Veronika Kudermetova within the third spherical and mentioned she had a lot left after the match that lasted 2 hours, 55 minutes, including she might probably lower that in half if she cleaned up her serve.
“I felt that I used to be taking part in properly besides that a part of my recreation,” Gauff mentioned. “However I felt like off the bottom I used to be taking part in fairly properly.”