In her short time as a professional tennis player, even as her career flourished and she established herself as one of the best in the world, Coco Gauff’s great progress was often overshadowed by the match-up she just could not solve. By last June, Gauff had lost 11 of her first 12 matches against Iga Swiatek, an opponent she is likely to play for many more years.
![[Coco Gauff gets to the ball behind the baseline during her match with Iga Swiatek.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0b36c0b4922f417e96020214c36f68c1d768f0f5/106_162_3835_2301/master/3835.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
What was once a painfully one-sided non-rivalry may have finally turned into one of the best match-ups in professional tennis. On Sunday evening at the United Cup in Sydney, Gauff registered her second consecutive win over Swiatek, toppling the five-time grand slam champion 6-4, 6-4 after two hours of sublime tennis from both champions.
Gauff’s win over Swiatek, the world No 2, paved the way for the USA to win the United Cup for the second time in the tournament’s three years as they defeated Poland 2-0. After Gauff, ranked No 3, secured the first point for the USA, the men’s No 4 Taylor Fritz narrowly defeated the No 16 Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (4).
After an extremely entertaining 10 days at the United Cup, the final women’s duel was the most anticipated match of all. It lived up to the hype in full as the pair combined to produce tennis of the highest quality throughout their two hours on court.
Gauff and Swiatek are undoubtedly the two best athletes on the WTA tour and as they both players desperately tried to dictate and control the baseline, they also defended spectacularly, chasing down balls that would be certain winners against any other player, resetting points and constantly flipping defence into a tack in the blink of an eye.
