Coco Gauff vowed to ignore the “internet coaches” after suffering a shock Australian Open defeat to Paula Badosa. And the American insisted: “I’m not crushed”.
The world No.3 arrived at the first Major of the season in hot form after winning the season-ending WTA Finals and then going unbeaten at the United Cup.
But the Spaniard, who nearly quit last year because of an injury, won 7-5 6-4 to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final.
And she showed her old weaknesses with her forehand as she made 28 unforced errors and sent down six doubles faults. Asked how she would detach herself from criticism, the 20-year-old said: “I guess you just have to realize that most of the internet coaches never coached anyone at my level or never played. So it’s one of those things.
“It’s easier to look on the outside, you know, all those things when you are playing and you’re commentating.
“You’ll hear not commentators, but people saying: ‘Oh, she should have made this or he should have made that’. Even when I’m watching, I do that. Obviously when you’re out there, it’s different.
“I think that’s really the thing that I just take from it is I’m the one out there, and I’m the one who makes the decision at the end of the day. Yeah, if people want to say things, it is what it is.
“I take it with a grain of salt. Some people do mean well, so I don’t look at it as all bad. I’m proud of myself, and that’s all I can say. I promise that I’m going to continue to try my best to improve and live up to my own expectations of myself and whatever everybody else has I’ll whatever. I can’t control that.”
Since her first Major win at the 2023 US Open, Gauff has failed to return to a Grand Slam final. Her US Open defence ended in the fourth round after making the semis in Melbourne and Paris last year.
But Gauff said: “I feel like the US Open I was playing with no solution, so I think that was more the frustrating part. Today I feel like I’m playing with solutions. I know what I need to work on.
“At the US Open I needed to work on my serve. Not saying that my serve is where I want it to be, but I worked on it. Obviously a big improvement. So I want to continue working on that, continue working on playing aggressive margin.
“Yeah, so I feel like I’m on the road to the right way, right path. I’m not crushed. I think the US Open I felt from the start of the year to that point I feel like I had maybe not gone backwards. Yeah, backwards or a little bit stagnant. Even though I lost today, I feel like I’m in an upward trajectory.
“I’m not crushed, but obviously it does feel bad when you feel like you’re playing great tennis for the better start of this year to lose, but it is what it is. We’ll get back to work.”
