Coco Gauff eases into French Open quarterfinals, forgetting rackets her only concern

Yahoo

5 days ago

ROLAND GARROS, PARIS — Coco Gauff is into the quarterfinals of the French Open just about as serenely as she could have hoped.
Gauff, a finalist here in 2022 and a semifinalist last year, mostly rolled through Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia, who figured to be a dangerous opponent. Instead, Alexandrova looked stuck throughout a one-sided first-set and couldn't muster the high-powered consistency she showed during the first week of the tournament for long enough in the second. Gauff prevailed 6-0, 7-5 in 82 minutes.
Advertisement
It was a fourth straight-sets win for Gauff, whose biggest jeopardy on court at this tournament occurred in her first match — when she showed up without her rackets. She's been getting plenty of stick for it from her friends in the corridors, lounges and commissaries at Roland Garros.
Frances Tiafoe, an occasional racket-forgetter himself, most recently at Indian Wells, said Sunday night he'd been watching the video over and over of Gauff shaking out her bag on the court, looking at her box in a panic and begging for someone to hustle to fetch her sticks.
'I'm going to keep ripping her for a long time,' Tiafoe said after he made the quarterfinals with a win over Daniel Altmaier of Germany.
'I've never seen someone No. 2 in the world have zero things in her bag … That was a funny moment, especially when she tries to be Mrs. Mature. That was great. I'm happy it happened to her. Hopefully it happens again.'
Advertisement
So far it has not. She's been remembering her rackets and she's been righting the ship when it wobbles. So far, her matches in Paris have followed a familiar pattern. She opens with smooth and mostly easy first sets then has to dig in and grind some in the second as her forehand and her serve, and occasionally her backhand, grow shaky. To date, her opponents have just lacked the consistent firepower to hurt her when she's down. Tougher tests against players who have it in spades will come.
She may never have as easy a set in a fourth-round match at a Grand Slam as she did against Alexandrova. She was ahead 3-0 and two breaks of serve after six minutes. She won eight of the first nine points, 12 of the first 15 and 20 of the first 25.
Alexandrova found some of her form in the second set, hitting the deep, flat balls that can prove problematic for Gauff and have doomed her at her last three Grand Slams, where she lost to Paula Badosa and Emma Navarro. But Alexandrova never shook the error bug as Gauff moved her across the baseline. Gauff won 72 points in the match. Just 14 were winners.
Gauff has had a stellar clay-court season. She made the finals of the Madrid Open and the Italian Open in Rome, losing to the the world No. 1, Aryna Sabalenka in Spain, and Jasmine Paolini, the hometown hero, in Italy. She arrived in Paris in as good form as any woman in the field. Gauff entered the tournament as a favorite alongside Sabalenka, with Iga Świątek, the four-time champion, struggling for form across the clay swing. Gauff remains a threat, but Świątek looks an increasingly tougher proposition with every match.
Advertisement
She will face the winner of Monday afternoon's match between fellow Americans Madison Keys and Hailey Baptiste, one a Grand Slam champion and veteran and the other making her first appearance in the second week of a Grand Slam.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women's Tennis
2025 The Athletic Media Company