{"id":100412,"date":"2026-08-24T03:23:34","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T03:23:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/gauff-powers-past-pegula-to-win-us-open-warm-up-in-cincinnati\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T03:23:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T03:23:34","slug":"gauff-powers-past-pegula-to-win-us-open-warm-up-in-cincinnati","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/gauff-powers-past-pegula-to-win-us-open-warm-up-in-cincinnati\/","title":{"rendered":"Gauff powers past Pegula to win US Open warm-up in Cincinnati"},"content":{"rendered":"
American Coco Gauff celebrates her victory over Jessica Pegula in the Cincinnati WTA 1000 final (MATTHEW STOCKMAN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Coco Gauff made a statement Sunday with the US Open approaching, dominating Jessica Pegula 6-2, 6-4 to win her first title of 2026 at the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

World number four Gauff claimed her first WTA title since last October in Wuhan, having come up short in finals in Miami and Rome this year.<\/p>\n

Her victory over third-ranked Pegula gave her a second Cincinnati crown. Gauff earned her first in 2023, going on to claim the first of her two Grand Slam titles at the US Open that year. <\/p>\n

The first all-American WTA final in Cincinnati since Rosie Casals beat Nancy Richey in 1970 was a lopsided affair.<\/p>\n

Gauff insisted it shouldn't be considered a barometer for the US Open, but admitted it was a welcome confidence boost.<\/p>\n

"I don't think that this is an indicator that I'm going to do well in New York or anything like that to be honest," Gauff said, but added: "(I'm going in) knowing that I can figure out these matches (even if) I'm not playing my best, but also knowing that I can play that great tennis that I felt I was playing this week.<\/p>\n

"Hopefully I can use the experience here in New York."<\/p>\n

Gauff polished off an impressive tournament with victory in 75 minutes and will head to New York riding a wave of confidence for the start of the US Open next Sunday.<\/p>\n

It's a far cry from an early exit in Cincinnati last year, which Gauff said left her "in the parking lot in tears" after she coughed up 16 double-faults in defeat.<\/p>\n

"It's a big difference, what a year can make," added Gauff, who was so bothered by her service struggles this time last year that she hired a new coach days before the US Open.<\/p>\n

"Last year I was just frustrated with my game, and I felt like I was declining," she said. "It's not something any player wants to feel. You always want to feel like you're getting better, at the worst, like just plateauing."<\/p>\n

– 'Amazing momentum' –<\/p>\n

This time around Gauff was rock-solid on serve and Pegula, coming off a hard-fought win over defending champion Iga Swiatek, had no answer for Gauff's speed and aggression.<\/p>\n

Gauff broke Pegula twice for a 4-0 lead and was up 5-0 before Pegula got on the scoreboard, holding serve and clawing back a break.<\/p>\n

It was a brief reprieve as Gauff broke again to pocket the opening set after 34 minutes. <\/p>\n

The second set was more of the same, Gauff breaking on the way to a 3-0 lead and Pegula playing catch-up. <\/p>\n

Gauff sealed victory on her first match point to conclude 12 days of tennis at the sprawling Midwest venue. <\/p>\n

Gauff's win squared the career series between the two at five wins each. Gauff won her second match this season against Pegula after defeating her compatriot in a Wimbledon quarter-final.<\/p>\n

Pegula was not displeased with her own performance heading into the final Grand Slam of the season. <\/p>\n

"I don't think I played bad but you played a very high level, it was not fun to play against," she told Gauff during the trophy ceremony.<\/p>\n

"You have amazing momentum heading into the US Open."<\/p>\n

str\/bb\/pst<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Coco Gauff celebrates her victory over Jessica Pegula in the Cincinnati WTA 1000 final (MATTHEW STOCKMAN) Coco Gauff made a statement Sunday with the US Open approaching, dominating Jessica Pegula 6-2, 6-4 to win her first title of 2026 at the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati. World number four Gauff claimed her first WTA title […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7787,18753,676,2463,29918,2835,30361],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100412"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fallsurfing.net\/firstnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}