After an incandescent start to the season, Coco Gauff averaged exactly one win in her next five tournaments across three continents. And yet coming into the Mutua Madrid Open, she seemed optimistic about her chances.
“I always thought I was that kind of person who needed matches to bring confidence,” Gauff the day before the event began. “But a lot of my results came out of nowhere, without not as many matches doing well. So I started to believe that you can turn it around any week — but just as quickly as you go on a tear, you can also lose.
“So I’m treating each tournament with a new perspective and a new mindset.”
And then Gauff dropped the first set 6-0 in her opening match against Dayana Yastremska. Since then, with that new perspective and mindset, she’s a perfect 10-for-10.
The powers of positivity — and uncanny prescience — have delivered the No. 4 seed to her first Madrid final. On Saturday, she’ll face World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, a 6-3, 7-5 winner in the second semifinal over cagey No. 17 Elina Svitolina.
It’s not what many expected. Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek would have met for a third consecutive time in this final, but Gauff did not get the mass memo, sending Swiatek home with an unnervingly forceful 6-1, 6-1 victory.
Her 5-4 head-to-head advantage suggests Gauff can hang with Sabalenka, too.
Gauff, now 21, has been creating havoc on the Hologic WTA Tour for six years now, but she has the opportunity to do something special here in Madrid. A win in the final would vault her past Swiatek to No. 2 in the PIF WTA rankings. That would mark the first time in more than three years that Sabalenka and Swiatek haven’t occupied the Top 2 spots.
In a sign of her uncommon maturity, Gauff has a bigger goal.
“I’m going to be honest,” Gauff told reporters, “it’s not important to me. I mean, the only number that would mean a lot to me is 1 at this point.”
Can she do it — can Gauff replicate Mirra Andreeva’s Indian Wells feat and take down Nos. 1 and 2 in succession?
Check it out at 6:30 p.m. local time, 12:30 a.m. ET.
We make the case for each of the finalists: