Cincinnati Open 2025, Round 2 Results: Coco Gauff Storms Past Wang As Navarro Suffers Early Exit

Coco Gauff kickstarted her quest for the Cincinnati Open title with a routine victory over Xinyu Wang on Sunday. 

Gauff, who downed Karolina Muchova in the 2023 final, eased into the third round of the competition with a 6-3 6-2 triumph in one hour and 10 minutes. 

After losing to eventual Canadian Open champion Victoria Mboko in her last match, Gauff started strong with an early break of serve in the opening set. 

The American traded breaks with Wang but was able to get the better of her opponents serve to take the early advantage in the contest. 

And from there, Gauff cruised to victory, breaking her opponent twice before wrapping up the victory with a fierce serve that Wang returned into the net. 

The second seed will now face Dayana Yastermska in the next round, though Gauff's compatriot Emma Navarro suffered an early exit from the tournament. 

Navarro was beaten 6-4 1-6 6-4 by qualifier Ella Seidel, seeing her become the highest-ranked seed to fall at the first hurdle in Cincinnati. 

Elsewhere, Jasmine Paolini was put through her paces by Maria Sakkari, but she was able to overcome two tie-breaks to clinch a 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-5) victory.

Jessica Pegula also eased into the third round with a straight-sets victory over Kimberly Birrell, with last year's runner-up earning a 6-4 6-3 triumph. 

Data Debrief: Gauff bounces back with a bang

A week ago in Montreal, Gauff exited the tournament with 42 double faults in three matches, and did struggle on serve here, registering eight against Wang. 

But she was able to overcome those serving struggles to get over the line here, something she has made a habit of doing in her first match at tournaments in her career. 

Indeed, Gauff's victory saw her move past her opening match in 36 of the 44 WTA-1000 tournaments she has appeared in. Only Martina Hingis (46) has won more such matches in Tier1/WTA-1000 competitions before turning 22.