Coco Gauff sends ‘best player in the world’ statement with second consecutive win over Iga Swiatek

Coco Gauff is on a roll as she has now won 17 of her last 20 matches and three of those victories came against Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek.
The American finished the 2024 season on a high as she won the WTA Finals, defeating Swiatek and Sabalenka en route to lifting the second biggest title of her career after her 2023 US Open trophy.
And she continued where she left off as she started the 2025 season with five singles victories at the United Cup as she steered the United States to their second title in three years.
The Gauff-Swiatek clash has already been dubbed the “best singles match of the 2024 season” as they produced high-quality shots and rallies and it was the American who came away with a 6-4, 6-4 win to take her United Cup record to 7-0.
The world No 3 won all five of her singles matches in straight sets as she also defeated Leylah Fernandez, Donna Vekic, Zhang Shuai and Karolina Muchova while she also claimed two doubles wins alongside Taylor Fritz.
Swiatek still leads the head-to-head comfortably as she is 11-3, but two of Gauff’s wins have come in the space of a few months.
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Gauff has earned 250 points for efforts at the team event as she solidified third place on the WTA Rankings behind Sabalenka and Swiatek. The top two are well clear with world No 1 Sabalenka moving to 9,591 points after winning the Brisbane International, Swiatek is on 8,120 and Gauff is on 6,780.
The win over Swiatek was a big statement ahead of the 2025 Australian Open.
“I think I have the belief now that I’m one of the best players in the world,” Gauff said. “I think I played great tennis. I’m happy to get a point on board for Team USA. It was tough today, I’m not gonna lie.”
Last year Gauff started her season with the ASB Classic trophy and now the 20-year-old has won the United Cup at the first attempt.
Taylor Fritz completed the job as she defeated Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4) as the US defeated Poland 2-0.
“This is my first United Cup. I had so much fun. This is exactly what I wanted… just to have fun on the court,” Gauff.
“There was a lot of pressure but you made it incredibly fun. I appreciate you guys and I’ll keep digging for you the rest of the year.”
The American will take a break ahead of the Australian Open. She reached the semi-final at Melbourne Park last year before going down in straight sets to eventual winner Sabalenka while the previous year she exited in the fourth round.