American tennis player Coco Gauff will face Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto at the 2024 WTA Dubai tennis tournament in an upcoming match. This will be a second-round match in the event, one that is also known as the 2024 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. This is the second event that Gauff has entered since the Australian Open. Last week, she had an unsuccessful tournament in Doha. My Gauff vs Cocciaretto prediction is that the latter player will cover the games handicap at +6.5.
Order of Play: Right-click/Open in the New Tab to check match times: subject to change
Coco Gauff vs Elisabetta Cocciaretto Head-to-Head Series
The Gauff vs Cocciaretto h2h is 1-0, according to the WTA. The two players do not have a recent head-to-head match in their history. Gauff won a match that they played in 2022 in Guadalajara, Mexico. That would have been outdoor conditions on the hardcourt surface.
Gauff was among the players who had a chance to win the 2024 Australian Open last month. She fell in the semifinals to the eventual champion, Aryna Sabalenka. The line score was fairly competitive as it included a first-set tiebreaker.
Gauff was otherwise exceptional in the tournament, going 10-1 on sets through the first five rounds. But last week, she lost in the first round in Doha to Katerina Siniakova. Gauff was a heavy favorite in the match before losing in straight sets, one of the surprise results of the early rounds.
Dubai is the third event that Cocciaretto has entered since the end of the Australian Open. She had to come through the qualifying draw in Dubai ahead of surviving the first round. However, she was a lucky loser, meaning that she was eliminated in qualifying and entered the draw only after some main-draw entrants withdrew. Regardless, she has played three matches already over four days. Her total sets is already at eight this week, including the qualifying draw.
The Draw: Right-click/Open in the New Tab for the draw for the 2024 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships
Gauff vs Cocciaretto Prediction: Cocciaretto +6.5
Cocciaretto does not have many matches against players in the Top 5 on the WTA Tour. Even when she won a title last season, she did not face anyone ranked higher than 68th in the draw. The last time the Italian played a Top 5 player was back at Wimbledon. The result was a 4-6, 0-6 loss to Jessica Pegula. Cocciaretto did beat Petra Kvitova, the World No. 10 at the time of their match, last season. However, that was at Roland Garros on clay.
But I think bettors need to go against Gauff on handicaps in this match. Cocciaretto is out at +6.5 and odds of -138 (bet365). Gauff’s loss last week was out of the blue. That means there’s a chance that she’s down for motivation after losing in the Australian Open. The American covering -6.5 looks a really big spread to cover at this point in her season.
Cocciaretto vs Gauff prediction: Draw at the 2024 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships
The winner of this match will be in the round of sixteen against an unseeded player. Caroline Garcia, the No. 16 seed in the Dubai event, already went out. Furthermore, this is a section of the draw where Ons Jabeur pulled out. She has been replaced by a lucky loser as well.
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