By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday Might 17, 2025
Possibly a troublesome loss to Jasmine Paolini in Saturday’s Rome closing will not 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 grew to become the youngest participant since 2009 to succeed in the ultimate of Madrid and Rome. She feels that if she takes the teachings realized from these two occasions, and ups her degree a little bit extra, a maiden Roland-Garros title may very well be hers.
“I feel it is each confidence and motivation to do higher,” the 21-year-old stated after her loss on Saturday on the Foro Italico. “Hopefully I can get to the ultimate in Roland-Garros and possibly the ‘third time is a allure’ 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 feel I’ve so much to enhance, so much that I can work on.”
thanks rome ❤️🥲 i’ll come again stronger pic.twitter.com/lOfLG8zwsR
— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) Might 17, 2025
In response to on-site statistics, Gauff hit 137 unforced errors in her final two matches. She says it simply implies that she may be higher in Paris.
“I made the ultimate with these errors,” she stated. “Made the ultimate possibly not taking part in my greatest tennis. It simply offers me confidence that if I can discover that good kind heading into Roland Garros, I can do nicely 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 taking part in her sort of match. Her efforts backfired, nevertheless. She has now misplaced each of her conferences on the European clay this yr towards the Italian, who grew to become the primary lady from her nation to win the Rome title in 40 years.
“I knew in the present day 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 stated.
