Gauff slams tennis fans: “Be more accepting of losses”

After completing a glorious campaign at China Open recently, American Coco Gauff seems relaxed about the challenges Wuhan has in store for her.

Gauff earned her second WTA 1000 trophy by defeating Czech Karolina Muchova in the all-important Beijing final a couple of days ago.

The American will have a shot at another big trophy at the Wuhan Open, which happens to be the concluding WTA 1000 event of 2024. Ahead of her campaign in Wuhan, a first, the No 4 seed cut a calm figure on the mic while addressing the media, to begin with.

“This is the first time doing it, which is why I wanted to play, just to see,” she said on Tuesday. “Honestly, there’s no challenge. Last week was treating it like practice. Here it’s a quick turnaround. The result right now, whether it’s good or bad, it is what it is. I think these are the weeks on tour that you kind of just treat as like practice.”

Notably, the Beijing triumph helped Gauff improve two places to sit fourth in the qualification race for the WTA Finals, the year-end championships scheduled for November 2-9 in Riyadh. It also ended a 10-month-long title drought for the American who, in the meantime, ended her collaboration of more than 12 months with coach Brad Gilbert and brought in Matt Daly.

The 20-year-old’s constant failures after the 2023 US Open, except in Auckland, brought her under the scrutiny of tennis pundits and fans alike.

With her confidence restored after Beijing, Gauff then proceeded to hit back at the critics in the Tuesday presser.

“I mean, obviously people get their opinions on what you should and shouldn’t do,” she said in Wuhan. “People don’t realise people have great moments in sports and bad moments. It doesn’t mean anything.

You need to go through losses to realise what you need to do to evolve. Tennis fans need to be more accepting of that [losses].”

Coco Gauff

As per the world No 4, the season has been decently successful for her with runs to the semi-finals at Australian Open and French Open.

“I think people think, ‘She had a terrible season, blah, blah, blah.’ Okay, I made two semis in a Slam. I won a title. Didn’t feel so bad to me. People need to realise there’s good moments and bad moments.

“When the season is as long as it is, it’s very hard to play great tennis from January to November. People do it, but it’s hard to do it year in, year out. There’s obviously going to be a bad two tournaments, then you’re able to pick it back up. I think all the players understand that, but maybe not the fans as much.”

Having gotten through the first round with a bye, Gauff will begin her Wuhan Open journey from the second against Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova, who overcame Ashlyn Krueger in the first round.

You might also like this

Gauff hails relaxation and perspective after Beijing win

tennis majors

Coco Gauff splits from coach Brad Gilbert in wake of US Open loss

tennis majors