Coco Gauff added to her trophy cabinet on Saturday when she defeated Wang Qiang at the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, Italy, 6-1, 6-3. It was the first clay-court title of your young career, and the second singles title she's won.
In addition to the solo championship, she also got another title this weekend, winning a doubles title with Caty McNally. The pair defeated Adreja Klepac and Darija Jurak 6-3, 6-2. Her accomplishment makes Gauff the youngest player to complete the singles/doubles sweep since Maria Sharapova did it in 2004 in England. For reference, that was the year that Gauff was born.
"I feel like all week I was just thinking about [winning both], especially when we got to the semifinals and you're thinking about it, and you're like it would be pretty cool to win both the singles and doubles titles. And I'm happy I was able to do that today," Gauff said.
ALL EYES ON ✨COCO✨
— wta (@WTA) May 22, 2021
🇺🇸 @CocoGauff, the 17-year-old American clinches her second WTA singles title in Parma 🏆#EmiliaRomagnaOpen pic.twitter.com/6rjWhYJ2mM
Her improvement on clay has been rather rapid. The 17-year-old is just a week removed from reaching the first clay semifinal of her career, when she did so at the Italian Open. Next up is the grandaddy of them all -- on clay courts -- at the French Open which starts May 24.
"It means a lot, especially on clay, which is not really I feel like a surface that people associate me with," Gauff said, before adding with a laugh, per the AP: "It feels good. I like the dirt now. I always talk about it, how I don't like it, but I like it now."