World No. 4 Coco Gauff praises Ukrainian tennis player after dramatic Madrid match
World No. 4 Coco Gauff shared her thoughts after a grueling three-set win over Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska in the second round of the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid in an interview with Ukrainian tennis outlet BTU on April 25.
Gauff admitted she was stunned by her opponent’s performance in the opening set but managed to regroup and eventually clinch the win.
“After losing the first set 0–6, I just tried to reset. She was playing incredibly," Gauff said.
Sometimes even when I hit a good shot, she turned it into a winner. So I tried to be more aggressive and mix up my game,” Gauff said.
“If she had continued to play at that level from the first set, she would’ve deserved to win the match. But I worked to raise my level and force her to drop hers a bit.”
The 20-year-old also noted the energy of the Madrid crowd:
“There was a lot of support for me today, and I’m very grateful for that. But people were cheering for her too, so the atmosphere was fun and electric. I always enjoy coming to Madrid and I’m happy to be back.”
The match had all the elements of a tennis thriller. Yastremska took the first set 6–0, but Gauff bounced back with a 6–2 win in the second. The decider set saw Gauff race to a 3–0 lead before Yastremska clawed her way back to 3–3. At 5–4, Gauff missed three match points before finally closing it out 7–5.
Another Ukrainian tennis player Yuliia Starodubtseva won in the round of 32 in Madrid.
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