Coco Gauff will face Karolina Muchova in the final of the 2023 Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. The match will be played on Sunday, August 20, 2023.

Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova will vie to lift the biggest WTA title of their career on Sunday at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. To get to this stage, they’ve needed to clear the mightiest of roadblocks. Gauff accounted for the upset of the week when she knocked out World No. 1 Iga Swiatek 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 – her first win in eight tries against the Pole. After winning the Citi Open at the start of the US swing, Gauff could put a capstone to her near-perfect record this summer and head to the US Open as one of the favorites.

Karolina Muchova, for her part, stunned second seed Aryna Sabalenka. She came from a set down to win 6-7, 6-3, 6-2. It was a rematch of their thrilling French Open semifinal in which Muchova saved a match point, but this time, it was devoid of drama as Muchova closed out the match routinely, allowing the Belarusian just five games after dropping the first set tiebreak. Muchova, like Coco Gauff, will play in her first WTA 1000 final at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati.

Coco Gauff and Karolina Muchova will square off for the first time in their head-to-head, which makes this match very intriguing. The 19-year-old is in the form of her life, having just won the 500 event in Washington at the start of August. The addition of Brad Gilbert to her coaching team has certainly been a masterstroke. We’ve seen Gauff take initiative in rallies and she looks uber-confident down her forehand wing, which is her weakest flank. Muchova has had a more treacherous road to the final, dropping a set in four of her five matches. In fact, since the start of the season, she has played 19 three-set matches and lost almost half of them. Her fitness record is also well documented, even though she has played injury-free all year. It’s hard to call from a winner’s standpoint, but Gauff has a slight edge, and more so if this one goes the full distance.