Gauff: “You can’t do anything, so it’s frustrating”

Coco Gauff fought back tears as long as she could, but by the end of her press conference on Sunday, she couldn’t hold them back anymore. Of course, the American knew she was going down against a better player that day and that Jelena Ostapenko could blow away the entire field on the tour on a good day. Still, the loss hurt. He played so well at the beginning of the year, and after reaching his first Grand Slam final last year at Roland-Garros, he is now obviously chasing his first Grand Slam title.

Since losing the final in Paris, he has lost in the third round at Wimbledon and in the quarterfinals at the US Open: each time against super heavyweights (Iga Swiatek, Amanda Anisimova, Caroline Garcia). So with this new loss against a very powerful player, maybe something sticks in Gauff’s brain that his game is too vulnerable against this type of player. There is obviously something to be done there, but it would be a shame to turn this into a dark horse type of situation. Yes, he has to choose a different gear when he faces these players, but he has the gear, so it’s more about getting it than creating it from scratch.

He arrived in Melbourne with a title in Auckland under his belt and then played some brilliant tennis until the fourth round: he had legitimate hopes of going deep into the Australian Open. But the draw saw him cross Ostapenko’s road on a day when winners flew without being undone by unforced errors. “Penko” in the zone? An absolute nightmare to play against.

“I worked really hard and I felt really good coming into the tournament and I still feel good. I still feel like I’ve improved a lot. But when you play a player like him and he plays really well, there’s nothing you can do. I feel like it was tough. So it’s a bit frustrating in that respect (ripping)”.

The way he covers the court, surely Gauff thought he would be able to bring one more ball back again and again and that Ostapenko would start to lose at some point. Certainly, he also felt that his own aggressive style of play would get the best out of Ostapenko’s footwork at some point, and he will miss that.