Coco Gauff says merging tennis’ governing bodies would help the women’s game following her scrappy quarter-final win at the Australian Open on Tuesday.
The world No.4 was far from her best at Melbourne Park where she ousted Matra Kostyuk 7-6, 6-7, 6-2, in what was a below-par performance. Gauff was down 1-5 in the opening set but managed to claw her way back to win it in the tiebreaker. Then in the second frame, she failed to serve the match out when leading 5-4 which enabled her opponent to take proceedings into a decider. Despite the blip, Gauff broke Kostyuk three consecutive times in the final set en route to victory.
It was a far-from-vintage performance from the American who hit 17 winners against 51 unforced errors. She also struggled behind her second serve, winning 39% of those points.
“Today was definitely a C game, I didn’t play my best tennis but I’m really proud that I was able to get through today’s match. Hopefully, I have got the bad match out of the way and I can play even better.” Said Gauff.
“Today was frustrating because I knew how I needed to play. I just couldn’t execute. Eventually, I was able to find it, which is what I’m proud of.
“At the end of the day you’re given a scouting report but you have to go with feeling and try your best to win. That’s what I did.”
Coming into the quarter-finals, the 19-year-old had only dropped 16 games in her first four matches played. She had previously played down the claim that she might be ‘uncooked’ due to a lack of challenging matches.
However, did she have any sense that she wasn’t feeling at the top of her game heading into her latest clash?
“When I warmed up in the prematch earlier this morning I was hitting good. I was serving good. I actually felt really good.” She commented.
“When I went on court and I had two breakpoints in the first game, I still felt good. Then I don’t know where it all happened to be honest. It wasn’t something that I felt this morning or even in the warmup.
“I felt like I was going for shots that I normally make and was missing and missing by a lot, not even close.”
Gauff has become the youngest American player to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open women’s event since Mary Joe Fernandez in 1990. She has also become only the second female teenager this century to win her first 10 matches in a season after Justin Henin did so in 2001.
Besides her Australian Open performance, Gauff has also weighed in on the idea of the ATP and WTA Tour’s potentially coming together in the future. In her view, such a move would have more positives than negatives for the sport.
“I definitely think it would help women, especially the women’s side of the game.” She replied when asked about her views on a possible merger.
“I find that when I’m at combined events I just feel like the energy amongst the crowd is better and for most of the events it’s equal prize money when they’re combined. It would definitely help our side of the game.’
“I feel like I generally enjoy when both men and women are at the same tournaments just because I have also friends on the guys’ side. Not even money-wise, it would just be more fun for me as a player around the grounds.”
Gauff will next play either Aryna Sabalenka or Barbora Krejcikova in the semi-finals at Melbourne Park.
