Reigning U.S. Open champion and current tennis World No. 2 Coco Gauff continued her impressive run at the Paris Olympics with a decisive 6-1, 6-1 victory over Argentina's Maria Lourdes Carle in the second round of singles on Monday. Despite facing some challenges, including a higher number of unforced errors and a lower first-serve percentage, Gauff's aggressive strategy carried her through.
“I knew that she was just going to probably try to out-rally me, which I feel like is one of my strengths. But also I had the ability to be aggressive,” Gauff said of her matchup with Carle, via ESPN News Services. The two players are familiar with each other from their junior days, which added an extra layer of strategy to the match. “So I think I was just trying to balance the mistakes and not let her win a lot of points off my racket.”
Gauff’s win was marked by double the unforced errors (26) compared to winners (11), only landing 55% of her first serves, and finishing with six double faults and no aces. Gauff struggled to complete her match in nearly 1.5 hours against an opponent ranked 85th, who has never won a tour-level singles title and has a 0-2 career record in Grand Slam tournaments.
“You can't argue with the scoreline, to be honest,” Gauff said.
Coco Gauff soaking in first Olympic experience
The 20-year-old American's performance at her first Olympics has been notable. It's her first Olympic games after she had to drop out of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for COVID-19 on the eve of the games. She is 3-0 in Paris in both singles and women's doubles, where she partners with Jessica Pegula. Across these matches, Gauff has dropped only nine games in six sets.
The match against Carle took place on Court Suzanne Lenglen simultaneously with a high-profile clash between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal on Court Philippe Chatrier. Gauff expressed a bit of disappointment at missing the opportunity to watch two of her sport's icons compete but appreciated the attendees at her match.
“Even at 6-1, 5-1, the crowd was still very much into the match, which normally isn't the case in most tournaments,” she said, as reported by Peggy Shinn of Team USA. “Everybody's trying to root for their player hard.
“Obviously, it'll suck if you lose, but I feel like there's a sense of pride, especially me being a first-time Olympian. It’s one of the things I wanted to check off my list. So everything is just a plus from here.”
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