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10 hours ago
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With her hopes of a monumental result at the Miami Open all but over, Karolina Muchova’s desperation deep in her semi-final match against Coco Gauff brought her into the forecourt. Down 1-6, 0-4, a sweet backhand drop volley from Muchova offered her a chance to put away an easy smash with Gauff stranded at the net.
Muchova, one of the most skilled volleyers in the game, would have won that point against almost any other player, but a bad match up in tennis can cause chaos in the mind. This time, Muchova inexplicably chose to stroke the smash straight in the direction of a surprised Gauff, who reflexively directed her backhand half-volley into the open court for a clean winner. Not long after, Gauff closed out her dominant, composed performance without drama to reach the final of her home tournament for the first time in her career with a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of Muchova.
In terms of recent form, Muchova had arrived in the match with a clear edge over Gauff. The 13th seed won her first WTA 1000 title in Doha last month and an extended run of good health has allowed the injury-prone Czech to put together some of the best results of her career. Gauff, meanwhile, had been dragged to three sets in all four of her previous matches in Miami. Her recent arm injury was just the latest obstacle in what has been a challenging start to the season.
However, Muchova also entered the contest with a 0-5 record against Gauff, a match up she has not been able to figure out. Still only 22 years old, Gauff is already one of the fastest athletes the WTA has seen and her immense defensive skills continue to confound Muchova. Gauff erected an unimpeachable wall behind the baseline, tracking down every last ball and mixing up the pace and trajectory of her shots. In her attempts to shorten points, Muchova played a dire, error-strewn match and looked void of confidence.
Gauff had previously been on the losing side of one of the most famously lopsided match-ups in the game, losing her first seven matches against Iga Swiatek. However, she has now won their last four meetings. Here, she took full advantage of being on the other side of the equation.
On the ATP tour, some players, particularly those from the United States, describe a player with a dominant head-to-head record as being the other player’s “daddy”. Although Gauf is very familiar with the term, she said they do not have similar phrases on the WTA tour. “We don’t have anything like that,” she said, laughing. “I don’t know. I feel like a lot of American guys, they’re a little bit on the ‘uppier’ [sic] side, so they’re able to say this. But for me, I don’t think of it like that. But I’ve also been on the other end of it, too, so I don’t want to … I mean, Iga beat me so many times in a row. So I don’t want her to be considered my dad. But I was able to reverse it, so now we’re both each other’s daddies? I don’t know.”
Asked whether she would want a phrase for such dominant match-ups in women’s tennis, Gauff burst into laughter. “I don’t think daddy’s the term. I don’t think mommy’s the term either. I don’t know. Dominatrix? I don’t know. But I don’t want a term because I know I have some matches where I’m on the losing end of that too. So I’m just going to say it was a good day, I’m lucky. I always say against her I don’t know why the matchup is like this. I’m going to take it, but I don’t think it’s going to last for ever.”
A couple of weeks ago, Gauff was unsure if she would even compete in Miami, a tournament situated an hour away from her home in Delray Beach, where she has commuted from each day to the tournament. Having enjoyed an unusually injury-free existence during her first years on the tour, a right forearm injury forced her to withdraw from her third-round match in Indian Wells, putting her Miami Open in jeopardy.
Despite some suggestions from her team that competing in Miami might not be advisable, Gauff opted to play. She has had to draw on her supreme mental strength to keep her run going, defiantly finding a way through each of her four three-set matches. However, she has also played some quality tennis, particularly in her most recent two wins against Belinda Bencic and Muchova. Considering all of the anxiety surrounding her remodelled serve and poor form this year, being forced to keep her expectations lower and being kinder to herself has clearly helped Gauff this week.
It will take an even greater performance from Gauff to lift the trophy in the final on Saturday as she awaits the winner of Thursday night’s battle between the two best players in the world, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina.
