Coco Gauff Breaks Six Times to Beat Valentova 6-3, 6-4
coco gauff beat Tereza Valentova 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, using six breaks to control the match in 1 hour and 34 minutes. The third seed and defending finalist kept moving through Rome while adding another milestone at the Foro Italico.
Gauff’s six breaks in Rome
Gauff needed those six service breaks because the Czech teenager made her work for nearly every hold. She saved six of the 10 break points she faced, but Gauff still won more than 60% of the points played in Valentova's service games and finished with a 75 to 58 edge in total points.
The scoreline tightened in the second set. Gauff led by winning the first four games of the opening set, then lost two marathon service games that let Valentova level at 3-3 and again at 4-4. She closed by taking the final two games.
Valentova pushes Gauff
Valentova actually put up more winners, 17 to 15, and had two fewer unforced errors, 27 to 29. That made the late-stage hold and break pattern more important than the clean numbers; Gauff had to keep matching pressure rather than waiting for errors to pile up.
Afterward, Gauff called Valentova “super talented” and said she “definitely stepped up her level.” She also pointed to her own serving as the part that needed the most work, saying, “I felt like I was having to try so hard to hit big serves” and “I missed some because she was pressuring my serve.”
Foro Italico milestone
The win gave Gauff her 18th career match win at the Foro Italico, her career-best total at a WTA Tour event outside the four Grand Slams. She also improved to 2-0 against Valentova, after beating her at Roland Garros last spring.
That record comes with a slight edge in the matchup and a rougher recent run against younger players. Gauff is now 15-4 in her career against younger players, but she had lost her last two matches to that group before this one, falling to Alexandra Eala in Indian Wells by retirement and to Linda Noskova in Madrid last week.
Solana Sierra next
Gauff’s next opponent is unseeded Argentine Solana Sierra in the third round. Sierra beat Anhelina Kalinina 6-2, 6-3 in her main-draw debut in Rome, so Gauff’s path stays in the section of the draw that has already produced one straight-set win for her next opponent.
Gauff is 20-8 this season after 28 matches played, and the serve numbers from this win point to the same issue she has been trying to manage. Seven double faults and a long second-set swing did not cost her the match, but they left enough pressure on the board to make the next round a stricter test.
