Coco Gauff vs Elena Rybakina prediction — the Three Pundits debate (WTA Canadian Open)

Rybakina has been dragged through two three-setters in three days. Gauff has been sat in the players' lounge with her feet up since Sunday. Bencic pulled out and handed her a free pass into the semis. She has never made this final. Three times she got to the quarters here and three times she went home. She hasn't dropped a set all week and now she gets a tired opponent.

Everyone in this bar is going to back the fresh one. That is exactly why I won't. Two days off is not preparation, it is rust. And you are backing the woman who has served more double faults this year than anyone else on tour, by a distance, against the biggest serve in the draw. She has been fiddling with her action mid-tournament, which tells you she knows. Rybakina came from a set down twice this week and won both. That is not a broken body, that is someone playing well under load.

S is right that the serve is the weak spot, wrong that the rest doesn't matter. Rybakina has about five and a half hours of tennis in her legs from two matches, the second of them a grinder that finished late on Tuesday night. Gauff has an hour and a quarter in the same window and a walkover. In a best-of-three on a hard court, that is the kind of thing that shows up in the third set — if there is one. I looked at the game handicap first, but that needs her to win by four games clear and I don't need her to be that good. The win just needs her to win. I make Gauff about a 59% shot and you're getting 1.83 at Matchbook. Straight sets for me.

Gauff in straight sets, trust me on this one.

She grinds this out in three.