Coco Gauff reveals what made her so upset about French Open loss

Coco Gauff said she was most frustrated by how her French Open defeat occurred after her title defense ended with a third-round loss to Anastasia Potapova on Saturday.

The reigning champion fell 4-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4 in a match that lasted two hours and 39 minutes, marking her second early exit while attempting to defend a Grand Slam title. Afterward, Gauff said the result was particularly disappointing because it followed a familiar pattern from recent tournaments.

“I think I feel like I lost the same way in Rome as I did here, which is not good,” she said, as reported by Dan Imhoff for Roland Garros news. “I don’t know. You never want to lose the same way back-to-back times, and I did, and I feel like also in Madrid, it was a similar thing, losing the same way … It’s one thing to lose, but I think today I didn’t – I mean, I competed, like, I fought my hardest, but I don’t think I played the way I wanted to in the crucial moments.”

Potapova, the No. 28 seed, earned the biggest win of her clay-court resurgence by winning her third career match against Gauff in five meetings. She struck 29 winners, including 16 on the backhand side, and frequently controlled the longer rallies.

“Well, I don’t have any words now. I’m extremely happy and the fight that we could show both of us,” Potapova said. “I mean, Coco is such a champion. I respect her so much, and yeah, I’m unbelievably proud of myself as well that I stayed there, that I’ve been fighting for the last point, and here I am.”

The loss for Gauff came weeks after she was defeated by Elina Svitolina in the Italian Open final and followed another three-set loss to Linda Noskova in Madrid. Gauff acknowledged similarities between those matches and Saturday’s result.

“She was able to finish the points and I wasn’t,” Gauff said, per Andrew Dampf of The Association Press.“Just not capitalizing on certain shots.”

Gauff said the pressure of defending a title was not a major factor this time around.

“I think at US Open it did a lot more, but honestly, this time it didn’t,” she said. “I wasn’t really nervous. I was nervous in my first round, but after that, I wasn’t really nervous going into today, and I wasn’t really thinking about it.”

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