Coco Gauff surges into DC final, U.S. women abound in Montréal qualifying
Just last month, Coco Gauff lost in the first round of Wimbledon. Frustrating? Yes. Demoralizing? No way. This week, at her next tournament back, the Mubadala Citi DC Open, Gauff has been airtight and is now in the final of a Hologic WTA Tour event for the first time since a January title run in Auckland. Aided by the new coaching team of Pere Riba and Brad Gilbert, showing what she called “external focus,” Gauff has won all three of her matches without the loss of a set. Most notable: Friday’s quarterfinal 6-1, 6-2 victory versus Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic, followed up Saturday with a 6-3, 6-3 win over defending champion Liudmila Samsonova. Well aware that Samsonova has one of the best serves in the game, Gauff stood further back to receive (a textbook Gilbert tactic) and won a sparkling 64 percent of Samsonova’s second serve points. Here's another Gilbert data point. In 1994, coaching Andre Agassi at their first tournament together in Miami, Gilbert h...