With the US Open not very far away, players are giving it their all to tune up for the last major tournament of the season. Among them is Coco Gauff, who is currently in Montreal to play in the Canadian Open. The American sensation bowed out of the singles competition after losing to Victoria Mboko in straight sets. However, Gauff has also participated in the doubles competition and is still going strong there. One particular moment during the semifinal yesterday particularly caught the eyes of the tennis world.
Gauff is partnering with her compatriot, McCartney Kessler, in the doubles competition in Montreal. The two had a thrilling win yesterday against the duo of Olga Danilovic and Hsieh Su-wei in the last four clash. Despite their win, there was an unfortunate incident involving Kessler that almost led to her disqualification.
The incident took place in the second set, when Coco Gauff and McCartney Kessler were up 3-1 after losing the first set 7-5. During the fifth game of the second set, a long rally ensued, and the ball went wide toward Kessler. The American sensation tried to keep the rally alive but lost the race against the ball, eventually hitting the ball after it was dead. However, Kessler’s return hit straight at the chair umpire’s head, leaving her shaken. Subsequently, both Gauff and Kessler rushed toward the chair umpire to check her well-being. The umpire took a major blow but didn’t show any signs of discomfort as the play was carried on.
McCartney just nearly took out Jenny in the chair pic.twitter.com/VOKiSL7f2Z
— Owen (@kostekcanu) August 4, 2025
Although both Gauff and Kessler looked visibly concerned by the incident, it had no bearing on the result of the match. They went on to win the second set 6-4 and subsequently won the match tiebreaker 10-6. While it was an accidental hit from Kessler, she wasn’t really to be blamed, as she tried to return the ball during an intriguing rally.
Meanwhile, it was a minor redemption for Gauff, who had lost tamely against Mboko in just over an hour. After the singles loss, Gauff received a brutally honest reaction from renowned journalist Catherine Whitaker.
What went wrong for Coco Gauff against Mboko?
While Gauff’s serving struggles have been very common in her losses, it was also a dominating performance by Mboko, who outclassed Gauff in an hour and two minutes. Despite being the top seed, Gauff had no answers to Mboko’s domination on the court and caught a dejected look. Even tennis journalist Whitaker explained why Gauff went down tamely against Mboko.
She said, “This is the only match all year where Coco Gauff hasn’t broken serve. And frankly, right now, if she’s not breaking serve, she doesn’t stand a chance of winning a tennis match because of the state her own serve is in, which is, David, a very, very bad one.”
Even BBC commentator David Law said, “Yeah, I mean, I can’t think of too many matches that I’ve ever seen where somebody’s hit 23 double faults [against Danielle Collins] in a three-set match and won it. And it’s a great credit to her that she finds ways.”
Although Coco Gauff continues her doubles journey in Montreal, she would be eager to get back to winning ways on the singles front. Without a doubt, Gauff would be the crowd favorite in New York to win the US Open title, and the pressure would be on her to succeed there.
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