Devastated Coco Gauff Admits She 'Broke Down' After US Open Defeat

Coco Gauff’s dream of winning a second US Open title ended against two-time champion Naomi Osaka on Monday. The home favorite was thrashed 2-6 3-6 after being thoroughly outclassed by her Japanese opponent. In her post-match press conference, Gauff revealed how hard she took the loss but also tried to look for positives from the match.

Gauff admits to breaking down after losing to Osaka

Gauff found it challenging to speak with her team immediately after the match and broke down in tears. However, this year’s French Open winner thinks there are improvements compared to before the US Open, especially on serve. Gauff hired biomechanics coach Gavin MacMillan to help with her serve a few days before the season’s final Grand Slam.

“I think that trying to be more positive. After the match I was really disappointed. I kind of broke down to my team. Then hearing their perspectives and everything, it definitely is a lot of positive things. I think if I kept the way I was going in Cincinnati to here, I would have been out the first round. So I think where my serve started from the start of the tournament to today was a big improvement.”

“I feel like now I just have to get everything to work together. But, yeah, I knew going in it was going to be a tough tournament for me. Did I feel like I had a lot of confidence after my last match? Yeah, definitely. I think that was a big confidence booster. So today feels more disappointing I think than maybe it would have felt losing in the first or second round.”

Gauff names the biggest reason for her loss

The world No. 2 praised Osaka for her performance. She thinks making too many mistakes during the rallies was a more significant problem than her serve, which the 21-year-old believes functioned better than in the opening three rounds.
“Naomi played well. Today was disappointing, because I felt it was the best I served all tournament. A lot of aces. Yeah, there were some doubles, but I thought, like, that was a good performance from me serving. Off the ground I think I just made way too many mistakes, way too many errors, which I feel like that’s the part of my game that I felt the most confident in coming into the tournament.”

“So it was kind of a weird match, like, feeling confident in different areas swapping. Yeah, I mean, it’s disappointing. For sure it was not the level that I wanted to bring, but it is a step in the right direction I feel, and I think emotionally how much this week was, I think today I just stepped in, and I maybe was a little bit empty. She forced me to earn every point out there today.”