‘Definitely Iga!’ Coco Gauff on why Swiatek is her biggest rival on tour

Coco Gauff never expects an easy match on tour, but when the world No 1 is on the other side of the net from her, she knows it’ll be an especially difficult day at the office.

After beating Veronika Kudermetova 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (3) in the Stuttgart round of 32, the American was asked who her trickiest opponent is – and she had no hesitation.

“Right now, head-to-head, definitely Iga. I haven’t beaten her. I would say she is the biggest. Pretty much everybody else I’ve gotten some wins over.

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“Obviously everyone in the top 10 everyone I think I have played, or – yeah, I pretty much played and maybe won and lost to except Iga. I think she’s the only one I haven’t beat.”

Gauff: I need to be aggressive on the right shots

The 19-year-old also talked about her style of play on court – comparing it with the more aggressive gameplan of Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.

“I don’t think I will ever be like Rybakina who can really literally hit someone off the court. I think more so the way I want to play is being aggressive on the right shots.

“I think the tiebreaker [against Kudermetova] I did really well in that. A lot of the shots I hit were kind of close to the line, but I think those are the shots that I know I can make. I missed a couple of those earlier in the match, but it’s the fact that I went for them, I think that’s when I made them when I needed to.

“The [Roland-Garros] final is great, but like I feel like since then last year, I feel like the way I have been losing matches has been because of that, I need to change something. So I think just keeping that mentality I had last year, using my physicality to make them play tennis but also not making them comfortable where they feel like they can just hit me off the court. So I think it’s just finding that balance, and I’m still trying to figure it out.”

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