American teens Coco Gauff and Caty McNally won their first pro tournament as a doubles team by beating the fourth-seeded duo of Maria Sanchez and Fanny Stollar 6-2, 6-2 in the Citi Open final Saturday.
“For both of us,” Gauff said, “it means a lot.”
Gauff, a 15-year-old from Florida, and McNally, a 17-year-old from Ohio, only decided to team up for the hard-court tournament in the nation’s capital right before the deadline for entering the field.
“It was pretty much a last-minute thing,” McNally said.
They also won the junior doubles title at last year’s U.S. Open.
Gauff shot to fame with a breakthrough performance at Wimbledon last month, becoming the youngest player to get into the main draw at the All England Club via qualifying, then upsetting five-time champion Venus Williams along the way to reaching the fourth round. Gauff’s magical run ended with a loss to eventual champion Simona Halep.
McNally’s impressive showing in Washington included a run to the semifinals in singles - but that’s where it ended for her in that event Saturday with a 7-6 (5), 6-2 loss to Camila Giorgi of Italy. That came before McNally joined Gauff for the doubles final.
In her seventh career WTA final, Giorgi will face Jessica Pegula of the U.S.
The 79th-ranked Pegula, whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, advanced to her second final by beating qualifier Anna Kalinskaya of Russia 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
The men’s singles semifinals were scheduled for Saturday night. Those matchups were top-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas against Nick Kyrgios, and No. 3 seed Daniil Medvedev against Peter Gojowczyk.
Raven Klaasen and Michael Venus will face Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau in the men’s doubles final Sunday.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.