“I need to do better in those matchups,” Coco Gauff discusses struggles against higher ranked players after defeat to Aryna Sabalenka
Coco Gauff admits to play better in those matches against the top seeds and talks about the communication with her team.
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Coco Gauff
Aryna Sabalenka triumphed over 19-year-old Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-0 on Court 1 on Thursday, March 16, securing her spot in the semi-final of the hard-court tournament. Despite Gauff’s previous 3-1 lead over Sabalenka on the WTA tour, Sabalenka’s skill was evident as she won in straight sets during the quarterfinals. Her performance was so impressive that she did not encounter a single break point throughout the match, marking the first time this season.
After playing so well until the quarterfinals, Gauff once again goes down against a better seed. This has been the trend for her in the recent past. She is unable to continue her good form against top-seed players. Gauff after the defeat against the second seed addressed this issue and accepted that she need to play better in such matches.
When asked about her performance against higher seeds, Gauff said, “Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think right now I feel like I’m playing where my ranking is, and I don’t want to stay, you know, just inside the top 10. I want to be No. 1. So I think I have to do better when it comes to these type of matchups when I’m playing higher-ranked players or in general even players who are slightly ranked lower than me, I think I need to do better in those matchups.”
She later added, “I think that’s the reason why. You know, getting late into these tournaments but falling up short. I think I just need to take care of the details because the details definitely start to show when you’re playing against higher-ranked players and they know how to capitalize off that. So I think I need to improve certain areas of my game so that it’s not so easy to capitalize off of it.”
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Coco Gauff talks about problem-solving with team communication
In just 64 minutes, Aryna Sabalenka effortlessly defeated Gauff in the quarterfinals, extending her win-loss record to 16-1. Sabalenka will now face Maria Sakkari in the semifinals. The 24-year-old acknowledges the importance of maintaining focus during extended rallies.
Speaking about communicating with her team Gauff said, “I think it’s something that finding the balance I think, and I still haven’t found it. Today I was looking for more feedback from my team than I normally do. But it’s definitely a difference. For me, I really usually do well in the problem-solving aspect of matches. There’s a lot of times where I come back from down. But sometimes where I feel like I’m more emotional and I probably can’t see clearly.”
Coco Gauff’s run in both singles and doubles has come to an end in the Indian Wells Open. Earlier this week she also lost in the round of 16. Paired up with Jessica Pegula to seed second, they lot to an unseeded pair in a three set encounter. However, she will be focusing on the Miami Open now.
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Santhosh Tenneti
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