By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday Could 17, 2025
Possibly a tough loss to Jasmine Paolini in Saturday’s Rome closing shouldn’t be the worst factor on the earth for Coco Gauff.
The American dedicated 55 unforced errors in her 6-4, 6-2 defeat by the hands of the Italian, however Gauff nonetheless turned the youngest participant since 2009 to succeed in the ultimate of Madrid and Rome. She feels that if she takes the teachings discovered from these two occasions, and ups her degree a bit extra, a maiden Roland-Garros title may very well be hers.
“I believe it is each confidence and motivation to do higher,” the 21-year-old mentioned after her loss on Saturday on the Foro Italico. “Hopefully I can get to the ultimate in Roland-Garros and perhaps the ‘third time is a appeal’ factor is an actual factor.”
Gauff, who defeated Zheng Qinwen in an epic battle within the semifinals, says she isn’t taking her losses frivolously, however she isn’t overreacting to them, both.
“Total I misplaced to 2 high quality opponents, Aryna in Madrid and Jasmine right here. So yeah, I believe I’ve rather a lot to enhance, rather a lot that I can work on.”
thanks rome ❤️🥲 i’ll come again stronger pic.twitter.com/lOfLG8zwsR
— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) Could 17, 2025
In line with on-site statistics, Gauff hit 137 unforced errors in her final two matches. She says it simply implies that she could be higher in Paris.
“I made the ultimate with these errors,” she mentioned. “Made the ultimate perhaps not enjoying my finest tennis. It simply offers me confidence that if I can discover that good kind heading into Roland Garros, I can do properly there.”
Gauff is 11-3 on clay in 2025 and 20-5 lifetime at Roland-Garros, the place she reached the ultimate in 2022 and the semifinal in 2024.
The 21-year-old Florida native says she was making an attempt to be aggressive to maintain Paolini from enjoying her form of match. Her efforts backfired, nonetheless. She has now misplaced each of her conferences on the European clay this 12 months towards the Italian, who turned the primary lady from her nation to win the Rome title in 40 years.
“I knew right now I used to be making an attempt to be extra aggressive as a result of I felt like if I used to be being passive, she would run me throughout the court docket,” Gauff mentioned.
