Coco Gauff points blame after confusing French | Sports News

U.S. tennis star Coco Gauff jokingly blamed her coach, Jean-Christophe Faurel, after she forgot her rackets forward of her first-round French Open matchup towards Olivia Gadecki. The 21-year-old, who will keep away from Aryna Sabalenka or Iga Swiatek till a minimum of the ultimate if she progresses by means of the rounds, was bemused to seek out her tennis back with out rackets.

Gauff opened her bag and appeared towards her coach with a smile. A ball boy got here to the rescue and retrieved the American No. 1’s rackets from Faurel, who she later blamed for the blunder.

Gauff went on to breeze into the second spherical, defeating Gadecki in straight units, 6-2,6-2. After the match, Gauff, who made calls for to French Open bosses alongside male star Jannik Sinner, defined her racket-less arrival and pointed the blame elsewhere.

“Honestly, I thought they put the rackets in the bag, and my sidecourt bag is filled with drinks and everything,” Gauff informed TNT after the match. “So it felt like I had enough weight. And then I got on court, and I opened the first zipper. I was like, ‘OK, no rackets.’ The second zipper, I was like, ‘Oh my God. I went on court with no racquets.”

“Honestly, as long as I’ve been on tour, my coach has always put the rackets in the bag before the match because he’s very superstitious,” she added. “I’m blaming it on my coach. It’s OK.”

Gauff cruised by means of the primary spherical regardless of challenges with the climate. Men’s tennis star Novak Djokovic additionally shared related struggles in his match on Tuesday.

Nonetheless, Gauff persevered to set up a second-round conflict with Tereza Valentova. “I played as good as I could with the conditions, it was really windy,” she defined. “I knew it wasn’t going to be a clean match… it was tough on returning the serve, timing the ball.”

“For sure, mindset first, then the footwork is the most important,” she continued. “It’s two different matches depending on what side of the court you’re on.

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“I felt on one facet I needed to actually hit the ball to get it previous the service box, and on (the opposite facet) I felt that if I barely touched the ball it will be a deep shot. Honestly, it felt like two totally different matches on both sides of the courtroom.”

Gauff lost to Swiatek in the 2022 French Open final, and lost to the Pole last year in the semifinals. This year, Gauff is hoping to win at Roland-Garros. Gauff has admitted that she hasn’t played her best tennis after winning the 2023 U.S. Open.

“I feel simply accepting the highs and lows. I feel generally in sports activities you need to simply keep on the high and sort of journey that wave, however particularly with this sport, a season as long as tennis, it is unattainable to at all times be on that high wave, and there is going to be some low moments, I feel,” she mentioned to the Roland-Garros web site.

“Just trying to stick through those tough moments and get better through them. Not feeling like the rest of the season is going to go that way. I feel like I’m able to turn it around. It’s happened before. I think it just takes one match or two matches to kind of get that confidence back.”