Coco Gauff was straight honest following a shock Toronto exit as the American tennis star admitted she wondered whether playing in Canada was a good idea since she knew that she would 100 percent feel tired and exhausted this week.
After a first-round bye at the tournament, Gauff started her campaign at the WTA 1000 tournament in Toronto with a 6-4 6-4 win over Wang Yafan. But after overcoming the Wang challenge, Gauff couldn’t do more as 20-year-old Russian Diana Shnaider dismantled the top seed 6-4 6-1 in the round-of-16 on Friday evening.
Before coming to Toronto, Gauff, 20, made her Olympic debut in Paris – where she took part in three competitions on the clay courts of Roland Garros.
Since Toronto was starting just days after the Paris Olympics, it was clear from the start that the tournament would likely lose some of the top players in this year’s edition. And exactly that happened as Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, Zheng Qinwen, Barbora Krejcikova and Donna Vekic all pulled out of Toronto.
But 2023 US Open champion Gauff went a different route.
“I mean, I knew I was going to go into this tired either way, that’s just how it is. Yeah, there’s sometimes I question like whether I should have played or not, but at the end of the day I wanted to test myself and see if I would be able to, how I would do being mentally tired a little bit and physically fatigued. I said going into the tournament I didn’t have high expectations, but I wish I could have competed better today, even if it resulted in a loss. I don’t think I competed well,” Gauff explained.
Gauff on Shnaider’s game and the loss
Shnaider is in the midst of a breakthrough season and her season took another chapter in Toronto after she clinched the biggest win of her career against Gauff.
When the match started, Shnaider – who has won three WTA titles this year – went toe to toe with Gauff and the first nine games went without any break points on either side. Then, the 20-year-old Russian stepped up in the 10th game and got three consecutive set points and realized one of those opportunities to go up by a set.
At the start of the second set, Shnaider faced a break point for the first time in the match but saved it in the third game. After saving that break point, Shnaider absolutely dominated the rest of the match as she won the next five games to complete the ousting of the current world No. 2 in their first meeting.
“No, I watched her play a lot, so she played how I thought she was going to play. I knew the match wasn’t going to be easy, especially if I wasn’t on my game. I think I had a lot of opportunities to close the point and I just missed a lot. In that 5-4 game I think all four points I had chances to hit a winner or close the point. Then the second set I mentally just got frustrated and kind of just let it get away from me,” Gauff reflected.
Gauff on what she needs to improve
After the match, Gauff made it clear that she wasn’t happy with the fact that she wasn’t able to threat Shnaider’s on the Russian’s service games and that she managed to create only one break point opportunity. And going into next week’s WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati, that’s something that the American tennis star wants to improve.
“I think overall, like, there is no part of my game that I felt comfortable in today. Returning-wise, you know, earlier this year I think, I don’t know where I’m at on the return, but I was like the No. 1 winning percentage returns won. I feel like today I just missed so many returns, backhand, forehand, serve, everything was just feeling off the whole day. So, yeah, it just wasn’t a good day at the office, but I can move on from it,” Gauff said.
“These are all things that I feel like I can easily fix, it just comes to getting more reps. I didn’t have the usual preparation I usually have going into this swing, so I’m trying to keep everything in perspective. But, yeah, there’s no excuse either. Diana, I think she played exactly how she needed to play to win.”
In her presser, Gauff also said that she will now return to the practice court and try to fix errors that plagued her in recent weeks.
When Gauff returns to Cincinnati next week, she will be coming back as the defending champion.
