Coco Gauff overcomes 23 double faults at Canadian Open for first win since French Open final | Tennis News

Coco Gauff made a winning return to competition on Tuesday night as she recorded her first victory since being crowned the French Open champion.

Gauff had to overcome 23 double-faults to win for the first time since the Roland Garros final, outlasting fellow American Danielle Collins 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-2) in the second round of the National Bank Open.

Gauff hadn’t played since losing in the first round at Wimbledon and appeared to have made a change to her serving grip during her time away. She struggled with it during the match, hitting some serves that were well long and others that were soft and easily pounced on by the powerful Collins.

“It was a frustrating match for me,” Gauff said. “I felt like I was practising well and then I don’t think I transferred it today, but hopefully I got my bad match of the tournament out of the way and I can come back stronger in the next round.”

A balky serve ended her U.S. Open title defence last year, when she committed 19 double-faults in a fourth-round loss to Emma Navarro. The serve was even more erratic Tuesday, though Gauff did hit a good one to end the match with an ace.

She is the top seed in Montreal due to the withdrawal of top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, the player Gauff beat to win the French Open in June.

Gauff will face Veronika Kudermetova in the third round and said she had plenty left after the match that lasted two hours, 55 minutes, adding she could possibly cut that in half if she cleaned up her serve.

“I felt that I was playing well except that part of my game,” Gauff said. “But I felt like off the ground I was playing pretty well.”

Leylah Fernandez, meanwhile, criticised the schedule at the National Bank Open after the Canadian lost in the first round of her home tournament, two days after winning the title in Washington.

Fernandez was routed 6-4, 6-1 by Australian Maya Joint in just one hour, 15 minutes. The No 24-ranked player won her fourth career WTA title Sunday in Washington and was hoping for additional rest before returning to the court in Montreal.

Fernandez said she received “a lot of promises” that she would play during Tuesday’s night session, giving her more time to recover between the two tournaments, but learned Sunday while traveling that wouldn’t be the case.

“I did not receive that,” she said. “That hurt me because I was very looking forward to be playing at night, but I guess it’s a little bit political issues at that point.”

Zverev, Rune and Musetti advance

Top-seeded Alexander Zverev beat Adam Walton 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 in his first match since Wimbledon, where he suffered a shock first-round exit to Arthur Rinderknech.

“I’m trying to find ways to kind of get out of this hole. I keep kind of finding myself back in it in a way,” Zverev said.

The German is ranked third but seeded No 1 in this tournament that he won in 2017 after the withdrawals of Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz. Zverev won a 52-shot rally in the tiebreaker to earn a set point.

“It was a very important moment and a very important point for me,” Zverev said. “I was lucky to get through in the first set and then finish it off in two.”

Third-seeded Lorenzo Musetti beat Australian qualifier James Duckworth 7-5, 6-1, while No 5 Holger Rune was a 7-6 (9-7), 6-3 winner over Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on a hot, sunny afternoon.

All seeded players had a first-round bye in the Masters 1000 tournament that also saw Jack Draper and Novak Djokovic withdraw.

Number eight seed Casper Ruud, No 10 Daniil Medvedev, No 11 Karen Khachanov, No 14 Francisco Cerundolo and No 18 Alexei Popyrin, the defending champion, were among the other winners. Reilly Opelka upset 16th-seeded Tomas Machac in three sets.

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