{"id":83032,"date":"2025-05-02T16:39:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T20:39:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=83032"},"modified":"2025-05-02T16:39:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T20:39:39","slug":"wta-madrid-final-preview-aryna-sabalenka-vs-coco-gauff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/05\/02\/wta-madrid-final-preview-aryna-sabalenka-vs-coco-gauff\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Madrid Final Preview: Aryna Sabalenka vs Coco Gauff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2023\/09\/04\/aryna-sabalenka-to-become-new-world-1-after-us-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> and World No.4 Coco Gauff are set to compete in the Mutua Madrid Open women&#8217;s singles final. This marks their 10th career meeting, with Gauff leading the head-to-head 5-4 and also winning the last time they met. When two of the best players in the world meet in the finals, it&#8217;s always a treat for the fans. Five of their nine matches have gone three sets, and this could also go the distance.<\/p>\n<h2>WTA Madrid Final Preview: Aryna Sabalenka vs Coco Gauff<\/h2>\n<h3>Aryna Sabalenka<\/h3>\n<p>Aryna Sabalenka has been the image of consistency on the WTA Tour as she is in her fourth consecutive final of this season. This is also her third consecutive Madrid Open final and fourth overall. Sabalenka has had some dips in her matches here in Madrid. She is playing well but not great. She hasn&#8217;t been serving that well and has been broken 11 times in the tournament. Her willpower throughout the tournament has been admirable as always, and enough to get her through. However, Gauff has always troubled her and she must play at her best to win the title for the third time.<\/p>\n<h4>Keys to Success<\/h4>\n<p>The high altitude and quick clay conditions favor aggressive play, which is the main reason behind Sabalenka&#8217;s success in Madrid. She has the perfect game style to flourish in these conditions, and she must take advantage by bringing the best out of her strengths&#8211;serve and forehand. She has to be the one to dictate points, and that is only possible when she makes a high percentage of first serves and finishes the points quickly. Gauff will experience pressure on her delivery if she continues to check off her service games. She must target Gauff&#8217;s forehand with depth and force errors or weak replies.<\/p>\n<p>Sabalenka&#8217;s best chance to win here is in straight sets, as Gauff will have more energy and stamina if it goes the distance. The Belarusian player has to put constant pressure on Gauff\u2019s second serve. Move forward, even step inside the baseline and attack it every time. Make her double fault and win those free points. Sabalenka has the better second serve, so it won&#8217;t be easy for Gauff to return the favor.<\/p>\n<p><a  id=\"hbJRNWFjSR17_eHkTfgIgg\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2212072293\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'hbJRNWFjSR17_eHkTfgIgg',sig:'JNGAV6yNrgJW7csyDySbcR3_X3G8IHRGvxUFNMX-I9U=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2212072293',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Coco Gauff<\/h3>\n<p>Coco Gauff has found some of her best level this week, and her movement and stamina have been on another level. She demolished Iga Swiatek in the semifinals and will arrive in this match full of confidence. This is her first final of the season, and she will look to win her first clay title in four years. Gauff will move to #2 in the rankings on Monday if she wins the final. Unlike Swiatek, Sabalenka has always been a good matchup for Gauff, and she won their only previous meeting on clay.<\/p>\n<h4>Keys to Success<\/h4>\n<p>Gauff does a great job of absorbing Sabalenka&#8217;s power, and it should be slightly easier to do on clay. She will need to become a wall and extend rallies by redirecting pace using her great backhand. This can force Sabalenka into over-hitting and make errors.<\/p>\n<p>Gauff didn&#8217;t face a single break point against Swiatek, who is one of the best returners on Tour. The American will need to have another serving masterclass or close to it. Making more first serves is the greatest approach for her to safeguard her second serve. This will also help her keep being aggressive and not play on Sabalenka&#8217;s terms every time. Gauff can also use variety on her serve, like kick serves and body serves, to counter Sabalenka&#8217;s aggressive return position.<\/p>\n<p>Gauff has an incredible 9-1 win-loss record in finals. On the other hand, Sabalenka is 9-9 in finals since the start of 2023 and 2-3 this season. This record might play a role in this match for Sabalenka. Gauff has to ensure she takes advantage of any mental lapses from her opponent.<\/p>\n<p><em>Main Photo Credit: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka and World No.4 Coco Gauff are set to compete in the Mutua Madrid Open women&#8217;s singles final. This marks their 10th career meeting, with Gauff leading the head-to-head 5-4 and also winning the last time they met. When two of the best players in the world meet in the finals, it&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5086,"featured_media":68019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,2],"tags":[1766,2747,4315,2867,5853],"class_list":["post-83032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wta","category-featured","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-coco-gauff","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-mutua-madrid-open","tag-wta-madrid-final"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5086"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83032"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83038,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83032\/revisions\/83038"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}