Coco Gauff tells Mirra Andreeva she’ll learn from ‘stupid’ French Open petulance
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Mirra Andreeva plays a forehand return to Coco Gauff, of the United States.
PHOTO: AFP
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PARIS – Coco Gauff has said that 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva will learn to control the outbursts of teenage petulance, which could have seen her magical French Open run ended by the shame of disqualification on Saturday.
World No. 6 Gauff, the runner-up to Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros in 2022, won 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-1 against her 143rd-ranked opponent, who came through qualifying and was the youngest player to make the third round since 2005.
Andreeva was fortunate not to have been sent packing when she angrily hit the ball into the packed crowd on Court Suzanne Lenglen during the tiebreak.
The umpire instead opted for a code violation and the Russian youngster admitted she had feared a default was on its way.
“Right after, I thought that it was a really stupid move from me, because it was not necessary to do that,” Andreeva said.
“It was really bad what I did. Yes, I had thoughts like this (that she would be defaulted), but he just gave me a warning.”
As the match slipped away, she also hammered her racket into the ground in frustration. However, Gauff, who will face Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia for a place in the quarter-finals, leapt to the defence of Andreeva.
“The ball thing, I guess maybe keep that in control,” the 19-year-old advised her rival.
“But the banging of the rackets and all that, you shouldn’t do it, but it’s part of growing up and part of life. So I’m not going to sit here and berate her for it. I’m not going to act like I was on a pedestal because I’ve acted bad plenty of times.”
Gauff was fined US$7,000 (S$9,500) for breaking a racket in a quarter-final defeat by eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova in Paris in 2021.
“Mirra, what happened today, I think she’s going to learn from it,” added the American.
Following the tiebreak, Gauff was comfortably the more aggressive and composed player in the second set, stretching out to a 5-1 lead on the back of a double break on her way to levelling the tie.
She secured it in style with her first ace of the contest.
She also slashed her unforced error count to just three in the set compared to Andreeva’s 11.
Gauff maintained her dominance in the decider, as Andreeva finally ran out of steam after a sixth match in Paris.
“Mirra is super young and has a big future,” added Gauff.
“I remember I played here when I was 16 so she has a lot to look forward to. She proved she belongs where she is and deserves to go far.” AFP
