Coco Gauff opened up about the difficult circumstances that contributed to her disappointing performance against Elina Svitolina at the Australian Open. The American, tipped as one of the favorites, lost in the quarterfinals in less than an hour on court.
On Tuesday, Gauff fell short against the experienced Ukrainian in a match that never quite swung in her favor. Svitolina recorded a 6-1, 6-2 win, with just three winners coming from Gauff’s racket.
The day wasn’t the 21-year-old’s favor, and she laid bare her loss in the post-match press conference. When asked about when she realized that things weren’t going her way during the match, Gauff revealed that none of her strategies were sitting right during the game. She praised her opponent for her game, stating that the latter’s excellent skills forced her to play like that during the match. (0:45 onwards)
“I mean, mid-second set, I feel like sometimes you lose a set 6-1, and it’s, okay, whatever, reset. And then like three zero. I mean, I was glad to get that game. And I don’t know, I just felt like all the things I do well, I just wasn’t doing well today, the backhand wasn’t firing, forehand wasn’t really firing, returns, there was just a lot that didn’t go well today. Um, and I credit it to her cuz she forced me to play like that,” said Coco Gauff.
“It’s not like I just woke up, today was a bad day, but you know, bad days are often caused by your opponents. So, she did well, and, usually, I’m able to kind of scrap out at least to make the scoreline tighter, and then you never know, nerves can come up on her, something like that. And today I just wasn’t able to do that.”
Coco Gauff opened up about her visible frustration on the court during quarterfinal clash at the Australian Open
“I mean, honestly, like the first set, I was after that I was still optimistic. Um, I played like two, three setters already this week. So, um, yeah, I just felt like, okay. Um, obviously you want to win the first set when you’re in a quarterfinal in general, but um, I mean, I couldn’t change that. So I felt like emotionally I think I was just frustrated, and it showed. And I try my best to be positive, but I just felt like nothing for me at the moment was working. And yeah, that’s a bit frustrating when you’re out there and you feel like your strengths aren’t really doing their thing,” said Coco Gauff.
