Coco Gauff Shares Her Tactics on Dealing with the Pressure of Playing at the French Open Final

Coco Gauff is vying for her second Grand Slam title at Roland Garros after reaching the final of the tournament for the second time in her career.

Coco Gauff Shares Her Tactics on Dealing with the Pressure of Playing at the French Open Final

Coco Gauff (via X/The Tennis Letter)

Coco Gauff booked her place in a second final at Roland Garros after beating home favorite Lois Boisson in straight sets. The American star will now face Aryna Sabalenka as she aims to get her hands on the title. She revealed ahead of the tie the tactics she will deploy to manage the pressure of playing in a Grand Slam final.

Gauff’s first final at the French Open was back in 2022, where she lost in straight sets to four-time champion Iga Swiatek. She revealed after the loss that she was nervous entering the Court Philippe-Chatrier, which led to her defeat. With that experience, she now understands what she has to do to manage the pressure ahead of her second Roland Garros final against Sabalenka:

I think just realizing how minuscule it is. Everyone is dealing with way bigger things in life than losing a final...So just knowing that makes me realize how lucky and privileged I am to be in this position. At first, I thought it’d end the world if I lost. And you know, the sun still rose the next day. So, knowing that regardless of the result, the sun will still rise.

Gauff added that after losing against Swiatek in her maiden French Open final, she went for a walk around the city. To her shock, she observed that no one recognized her, leading her to a major realization:

Especially being in a city like Paris, I was walking around the next day, and no one knew that I had lost. No one cared. Some people know who I am but not everyone. Just realizing how big the moment seems in our lives is not as big in the grand scheme of things.

Nonetheless, Gauff is aiming for her second Grand Slam singles title at Roland Garros. She toppled Sabalenka to clinch the 2023 US Open. If she does win the title on Saturday (June 7), she would become the youngest American to win the French Open singles title since Serena Williams in 2002.

On the other hand, Sabalenka is in her first French Open final. She’s now vying for her fourth Grand Slam singles title and her first away from the hard courts, where she’s won the 2023 and 2024 Australian and the 2024 US Open. A win against Gauff will make her the only active player in the women’s circuit to win three of the four Grand Slam events.

Former British No.1 praises Coco Gauff’s mental strength against Lois Boisson

Coco Gauff claimed a 6-1, 6-2 win over Lois Boisson on Thursday (June 5) in the semi-final of the Roland Garros. Before the match, there were talks about how the French crowd would be against her while supporting her opponent. But that didn’t bother the 21-year-old as she was focused on her game:

Coco Gauff, Lois Boisson
Coco Gauff, Lois Boisson (Image via X/The Tennis Letter)

Former British No.1 Tim Henman was very impressed by Gauff’s mental strength in the match. He revealed on TNT Sports that she blocked the crowd and concentrated throughout the match:

The way Coco went about her game plan, she was so solid and consistent, attacking her backhand and opening up her forehand. Mentally, she blocked out the crowd and the concentration was relentless. She delivered a perfect performance to get to the final. This exemplifies why Coco Gauff is No 2 in the world and why she’s won Grand Slams. She dealt with it in such impressive fashion.

Gauff is now the fourth player from America to claim multiple women’s singles finals at Roland Garros in the Open Era. She joins an iconic trio of Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, and Serena Williams.

Also Read: Iga Swiatek’s Honest Assessment of Her Performance After Roland Garros Heartbreak