American teenager Coco Gauff was still struggling to hold back the tears hours after losing the French Open final to Poland’s Iga Swiatek on Saturday, saying that her opponent, who is on a 35-match winning streak, was in a different league.
The tears started to roll straight after match point as Gauff was beaten 6-1, 6-3 in just over an hour, and she said she was struggling to hold it together when she faced the media later.
“I think for me, it’s just how I respond to everything going on. Because I think for right now, like emotionally, it’s just a lot for me to handle, and I’m, like, trying really hard not to break,” she said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“I think she [Swiatek] does a good job of taking the pressure moments and really rising to the occasion, and today she rose to the occasion. I do that pretty well, too, but today she was just on another level,” Gauff added.
Long-touted as a future Grand Slam champion, the 18-year-old Gauff said she had put pressure on herself throughout the year to match those high expectations, but her run to her first-ever major singles final was something she had done for herself.
“I just think even when I was 15, 16, 17, I felt like so much pressure to make a final. Now that I made it, I feel like a relief a little bit,” she said.
“I think this tournament was the first tournament this year that I went in trying to win for myself, and I think that was the difference in my mentality,” she added.
Gauff, who became the youngest player to reach a Grand Slam final in 18 years and did it without dropping a set, said that making the Paris showpiece would give her the confidence to deal with high pressure matches.
“I think that now that I have found that mental state, I know how to get there [Grand Slam finals]. I think it will help me in future tournaments,” she said.
“Now that I have seen the level, this level of No. 1 and 35 matches [Swiatek’s winning run], I know what I have to do. Hopefully next time — I’m sure I’m going to play her in another final — and hopefully it’s a different result,” she added.
In related news, Hall of Famer and equal rights advocate Billie Jean King thinks the French Open should have scheduled more women’s matches for the Grand Slam tournament’s high-attention night sessions — out of fairness and because that is the best way to bring more attention to the players.
King also told a news conference at Roland Garros on Saturday that she thinks new tournament director Amelie Mauresmo is likely to change that for next year.
Only one of the 10 night sessions during this year’s tournament featured women.
When Mauresmo was asked about that on Wednesday, she said it was because men’s tennis has more “appeal” at the moment and it was hard for her to find star players or high-wattage matchups in the women’s draw to spotlight.
“It will stay that way if we don’t have more matches, that’s for sure,” King said.
“You’ve got to put them when it’s prime time, and you have got to figure it out, and you want to give equal opportunity to both genders — always. You always want to make sure you do the right thing by each person,” she said. “They should have the same amount of women’s matches as they do men’s.”
The 78-year-old American was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987 for a playing career that included time at No. 1 in the rankings and 39 Grand Slam titles, including 12 in singles.
She was inducted again last year along with the other members of the “Original Nine,” who laid the groundwork for the women’s professional tennis tour in the 1970s.
“If we keep treating us like second-class citizens, we will stay second-class citizens. You want to make everyone feel important. We should have more matches, but I think Amelie will take care of that next year,” King said.
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