Coco Gauff might only be 21 but she has a valuable piece of advice for Lois Boisson after storming past the Frenchwoman in their semi-final match at the French Open.
The world No.2 was on the court for just over 70 minutes during her 6-1, 6-2, victory. In terms of games dropped, it was the most one-sided women’s semi-final match at Roland Garros since 2022 when Iga Swiatek beat Daria Kasatkina with the same score. Gauff has dropped only one set in the tournament so far which was against Madison Keys.
Meanwhile, Boisson’s remarkable run at her home Grand Slam has come to an end. Receiving a wild card into the draw, she produced a series of shock victories over Jessica Pegula and Mirra Adreeva despite being ranked outside the world’s top 300. It was also the first time she had played in the main draw of a major at the age of 22. She received a wildcard for the 2024 French Open but suffered a serious knee injury that ended up sidelining her from action for nine months.
Boission is now set to rise to 65th place in the WTA standings and become France’s highest-ranked female player. She is now facing a surge of interest in her from both the media and endorsements. A situation Gauff has previously experienced during the early stages of her career but at a much younger age than her peer.
“I think her position is especially harder because I think in the French there’s not a lot of players that have made this result in the recent years. So I think the whole country is going to be looking at everything,” Gauff told reporters during her press conference.
“I guess my biggest advice is just to stay true to yourself and the things that people, you know, keep your people around you, what they expect from you, not what media expects from you or other outside analysts expect for you.”
Meanwhile, Boisson has pledged to stay grounded and keep working hard on the Tour amid her newfound fame. She is the first player to defeat multiple top 10 players during her French Open debut since Monica Seles in 1989, as well as the first wildcard in the Open Era to reach the last four of the event.
“Each week we play new tournaments, and a lot can happen. So with regard to that, we just need to try and stay positive each week to really build trust in ourselves,” said Boisson.
“This week was very positive for me. It’s just that today it was quite simply too tough for me. I couldn’t manage to get my game going, but apart from today’s match, which wasn’t all positive, the tournament as a whole was very positive.”
As to what is next for Boission, she is going to take some time to soak up her achievement in Paris before heading to the grass.
“It’s better not to take too much time to digest a loss but I’ve never experienced such an intense week, both physically and emotionally. So I think that it’s very important to take the time to recover. Not with regard to the loss, but with regard to the two weeks that I’ve just experienced.” She concluded.
