“I lost playing the right way” – Gauff on 10th defeat to Swiatek

Coco Gauff has still only taken Iga Swiatek to three sets once – and that was the time she beat her.

On the ten other occasions they’ve played, the Pole has won in straight sets, and that’s exactly what she did in the Rome semi-final on Thursday, 6-4, 6-3.

But the American got an early break, and the first set lasted almost an hour – an illustration of how competitive the match was, even if the scoreline didn’t reflect it, which Gauff pointed out to reporters afterwards.

“I think from the start of the clay [season] till now, I feel like my confidence is definitely very high,” she said. “Like, it sucks to lose, but I know I lost playing the right way. I know that I’m a good player and that I can do better in those moments. I think I’m just trusting myself and my practice at that.

“I think the way that I lost today, it wasn’t because a wing or a shot broke down, it’s because she was the better player today. If I lose matches like that, we go back and we practise.

“I think going into Roland-Garros, like if you asked me pre-tournament and now, I feel like I’m a different player in terms of just how I’ve been playing. I think it really turned around in the Badosa match [in the round of 16, 5-7, 6-4, 6-1], then pushed through the Qinwen [Zheng in the quarter-final, 7-6 (4), 6-1], and then today was a 4 [and] 3 loss. I feel like the scoreline doesn’t show how competitive it was. It was almost two hours at 6-4, 6-3.

“Going into it, I know she’s the one to beat if I want to win Roland-Garros. I’m going to take what I learned from today and try to apply that next time we play, which I hope is at Roland-Garros.”

Gauff: Against anybody else, I would have won

And she said that the tournament as a whole was a great learning experience for her – and that she had improved her service from earlier rounds.

“Overall I would say from where I started the tournament to where I finished, it’s definitely overall a positive. The [four] double-faults, they did come just in that one game [in the first set]. Overall, if I’m going 120 on the serves, I have to expect that.

“But overall I would say from just this match, I feel more negative emotions right now. Like, looking at the whole tournament from where I started to now, I definitely feel like it’s major improvement.

“Against probably anybody else today, I would have won the match.”

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