Gauff disappoints against Kasatkina in straight set loss in Stuttgart

Coco Gauff opened in stellar fashion against Daria Kasatkina but then fell apart as her opponent started playing better to lose 4-6 2-6.

Coco Gauff opened her first clay match of the season in a pretty strong fashion which was kind of expected. The American posted a superb record on the surface last year and went rather deep in the French Open and generally seems rather comfortable on the surface. She moves well and she practiced a lot on it during her days at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy.

She opened with a 4-0 lead with two breaks in a hand and a served for the 5-0 lead. She did not get it as she lost her serve and that was the start of her troubles. Kasatkina is a very strong clay player herself and once she finally got into her rhythm things changed dramatically. Gauff was getting increasingly nervous and it showed in her game.

She lost her serve at 2-4 once again to continue her slide in the match with Kasatkina adding another one, later on, to close out the first set with 6-4. Gauff won fur games in a row and then lost six in a row. Unfortunately, it's becoming a theme for her and it's somewhat not surprising. The start of the 2nd set was quite shaky as well. She lost her serve in the first game but battled back immediately.

She then held from 15-40 down for the 2-1 lead but once again that was the end of it. Kasatkaina started playing much better as Gauff simply could not keep up. The Russian went on to win 5 games in a row to close out the match with 6-2.