Coco sweeps singles and doubles titles in Parma

Coco and McNally, the fourth-seeded team, defeated the No. 2 seeds Darija Jurak (Croatia) and Andreja Klepac (Slovenia), 6-3, 6-2 to win the title late on Saturday.

Parma (Italy): American tennis player Coco Gauff made a clean sweep of the titles at the Emilia-Romagna Open, as she paired with compatriot Caty McNally to win the doubles championship in Parma.

The fourth-seeded team defeated the No. 2 seeds Darija Jurak (Croatia) and Andreja Klepac (Slovenia), 6-3, 6-2 to win the title late on Saturday.

Earlier on in the day, 17-year-old Coco won her second career WTA singles title in the tournament, dispatching China's Wang Qiang 6-1, 6-3.

Coco, the world No. 30, needed an hour and 14 minutes to overcome the challenge from the 48th-ranked Chinese and add to her singles title collection, which she started as a lucky loser in Linz in 2019.

"I feel like all week I just was thinking about it," Coco said after winning the doubles title.

"Especially when we got to the semi-finals, you're thinking about it, like, 'It would be pretty cool to win both the singles and doubles titles'. Happy that I was able to do that today," she added.

At 17 years and 70 days old, Coco is the youngest player to sweep the singles and doubles titles at an event since Russia's Maria Sharapova won both titles at 2004 Birmingham, at 17 years, 55 days old.

Sharapova completed the sweep 92 days after Gauff was born.

Coco and Caty improved to 3-0 in doubles titles as a team, adding to their 2019 titles in Washington D.C. and Luxembourg.

Caty also has a fourth doubles title, which she won with Hailey Baptiste earlier this season at the MUSC Health Women's Open in Charleston.

IANS