Shnaider knocks out Gauff in Toronto to notch first Top 10 win

Tennis Channel’s clever headline teeing up Friday night’s match between Coco Gauff and Diana Shnaider read: Can I See Some ID?

This was the first Hologic WTA Tour main-draw meeting between the ascendant 20-year-olds but, in all probability, not the last. Going forward, this might become a staple toward the end of WTA Tour events.

Toronto: Scores | Draws | Order of Play

On this breezy night at the National Bank Open in Toronto, Shnaider scored a muscular upset of No.1-seeded Coco Gauff, 6-4, 6-1. It was over in 70 minutes.

It was the first Top 10 win for Shnaider, after losing her two previous such matches. As a result, she’s through to her first quarterfinal at a WTA 1000 event.

Very quietly, Shnaider is having one of the best seasons on the WTA Tour. Born three weeks after Gauff in 2004, the 20-year-old is a remarkable 39-14 across all professional platforms — two more wins than Gauff. Shnaider survived two third-set tiebreakers in her first two matches.

Shnaider broke Gauff’s serve three times and was not broken herself. Gauff, fired eight double faults and landed only 50 percent of her first serves.

Gauff is one of the few Top 10 players who chose to transition to Toronto hard courts immediately after playing the Olympics on the red clay of Roland Garros. It was important to Gauff to lay down a foundation in the North American hardcourt season, which continues next week in Cincinnati, followed by the US Open, where Gauff is the defending champion.

“Sometimes I question like whether I should have played or not,” Gauff said, “but at the end of the day I wanted to test myself and see if I would be able to, how I would do being mentally tired a little bit and physically fatigued.

“I said going into the tournament I didn’t have high expectations, but I wish I could have competed better today, even if it resulted in a loss. I don’t think I competed well.”

With Gauff serving to stay in the first set at 4-5, Shnaider converted her third set point. She broke Gauff again in the fourth game of the second set to take control of the one-sided match.

“I know Coco is very physically prepared for everyone on tour, and she’s running very well, she’s covering all of the balls and all the angles on the court,” Shnaider said. “So when there were long rallies and I was winning them I was like, ‘Wow, I just beat Coco in long rallies. I am good today’.

“I mean, I tried to play it cool, but inside I was like, ‘Yes! I made it!'”

After playing one season at North Carolina State, Shnaider managed to finish 2023 ranked No.60, highlighted by a run to the finals in the Ningbo, China WTA 500. Shnaider has already collected three titles this year – on three different surfaces — Hua Hin, Thailand (hard) in February, Bad Homburg (grass) in June and Budapest (clay) in July. In addition, she reached two WTA 125s, winning in Charleston. In Paris she took home a silver medal in Olympic doubles with Mirra Andreeva.

Shnaider, a power player, is currently No.24 — and rising.

For Gauff — regardless of her precocity — it was another reminder that as the No.2-ranked player in the PIF WTA rankings she’s a target. After missing the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, Gauff put a premium on winning a medal in Paris but fell short in all three disciplines.

“I feel like a lot of times people play their best tennis against the higher-ranked players, and that’s just because they have nothing to lose,” said Gauff, who lost in the third round of singles to Donna Vekic. “But if everybody’s playing me at their high level it can only make me better.

“When you have success young, I think people, especially like fans of the sport tend to forget you’re still developing. A lot of times when you look at reasons why some younger girls maybe don’t do as well as they get older it’s more mental, if anything. Overall, I’m just trying to put that in perspective, and honestly the Olympics was a great learning experience for me.”

Gauff has never been shy about sharing her fiery ambition to succeed. And those dreams have a way of coming true.

At 20, Gauff finds herself ranked No.2 among Hologic WTA Tour players and already has a Grand Slam, last year’s US Open, on her growing resume. But, believe it or not, it doesn’t always happen as quickly as she would like.

After missing the Tokyo Olympics three years ago with a bout of COVID, Gauff eagerly looked forward to the Games in Paris, saying her goal was to bring home a medal. She played in all three tennis disciplines for the United States, but it didn’t happen.

The success of some of her older USA teammates in track and field inspired her and helped put that in perspective. Gauff cited Gabby Thomas (gold in the 200 meters), Tara Davis-Woodhall (gold in long jump), Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (gold in 400-meter hurdles) and Sha’Carri Richardson (silver in the 100 meters).

“Sometimes when you do well young you just, you want everything to happen now,” Gauff explained at the National Bank Open in Toronto. “A lot of them are 24, between 24 to 27 range, so I guess it puts it into perspective sometimes. I think I just learned to just trust in my training and trust in the journey, just talking with them and learning about their stories.

“All of them at some point did well young, just because they’re so good. Your game is going to reach its final form in a few years. I’m 20, so hopefully by like 24 I’m there.”