Aug 6, 2025; Montreal, QC, Canada; Coco Gauff (USA) and McCartney Kessler (USA) pose with the championship trophy after the doubles final at IGA Stadium.

tennis

Coco Gauff Tastes Doubles Success With McCartney Kessler After Thrilling National Bank Open 2025 Final vs. Townsend/Zhang

Aug 6, 2025; Montreal, QC, Canada; Coco Gauff (USA) and McCartney Kessler (USA) pose with the championship trophy after the doubles final at IGA Stadium.

Despite a disappointing singles campaign, World No. 2 Coco Gauff proved her might in the women’s doubles final at the 2025 Canadian Open in Montreal. She partnered fellow American McCartney Kessler to capture the crown against veteran doubles specialists Taylor Townsend and Shuai Zhang on Wednesday. Despite dropping the second set with no answers to the American-Chinese pair, Gauff/Kessler regained focus for a thrilling 6-4 1-6 13-11 win.

Gauff was competing in just her third women’s doubles event since her split with long-time doubles partner Jessica Pegula. The duo cited a shift in focus towards singles as the primary reason for discontinuing the partnership. Meanwhile, the 21-year-old found immediate chemistry with Kessler. They had to come through four deciding set tiebreaks to seal the deal in Montreal. What makes this title even more special, is the fact that Gauff and Kessler had to beat phenomenal doubles pairs like Kichenok/Perez, Krejcikova/Ostapenko and Hsieh/Danilovic along the way.

Coco Gauff and McCartney Kessler won 4 STRAIGHT match tiebreaks to win the doubles title 😳🏆#OBN25 pic.twitter.com/Cy1JKZTGJZ
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) August 6, 2025

“You know it’s weird, I feel more pressure serving in doubles than in singles because I don’t want to sit here and give the match away for my partner,” said the two-time Grand Slam champion after their semifinal victory. Since winning the Roland Garros singles title, Gauff has been going through an abysmal run – particularly on serve. “I’m trying to take that mentality [of serving well under pressure] into singles, but it’s not so easy.”

Gauff/Kessler Pull Off Nail-Biting Win in Montreal Doubles Final

The match began with some hard-hitting groundstroke exchanges between the pairs. Kessler in particular was in the firing line, but answered with aplomb. Ranked No. 32 in the world in singles, the American is a dominant baseliner. In Game-7, the Gauff/Kessler pair pounced on a mediocre service game by Zhang to get the crucial break of serve. It was enough to seal the opener 6-4.

The second set began with more serving woes for Gauff. She failed to earn her team any free points, resulting in an early break. Townsend and Zhang used their doubles experience to increase their cross-over percentage at the net, leading to easy putaways. Already down 1-4, the set was more or less out of reach when Gauff got broken to love. Townsend/Zhang sent the match into a decider with a classic serve plus one.

fun two weeks here in Montreal, glad I got to leave here with another one for the cabinet #10dubs 🩷 thank you McCartney playing with me and for being so clutch haha & thank you guys for the support #CoKart 🏎️ pic.twitter.com/TmLNnAOijL
— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) August 7, 2025

In the championship-deciding tiebreak, both pairs remained steadfast and compact in their approach. It was the all-American pair that set up two championship points at 9-7, but failed to convert either of them. They targeted Zhang at the net, but to no avail. On the fifth championship point however, Kessler slammed a winner down the line to ensure a monumental victory for the new pairing.

(Image Credits: Eric Bolte, Imagn Images)

Coco Gauff

McCartney Kessler

National Bank Open

Taylor Townsend

Tennis

US Open

Zhang Shuai

Sankalp Harikrishnan

A passionate sports fan through and through, I am currently pursuing my MA in Global Sports Journalism. I specialise in tennis and football writing at The Playoffs News, and I have prior experience working at EssentiallySports and Sportskeeda. Born and raised in Bengaluru, India, sport was my safe space right from my childhood. After trying my hand at multiple sports and representing my educational institutions in cricket, badminton and table tennis, I found sports media to be my calling.