CNN
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Coco Gauff broke down in tears after her straight units defeat within the fourth spherical of the Australian Open on Sunday, whereas fellow American Jessica Pegula progressed to the quarterfinals.
The 18-year-old Gauff misplaced 7-5 6-3 to Latvian Jelena Ostapenko on Margaret Court docket Enviornment and couldn’t cover her disappointment when speaking to reporters in regards to the match afterwards.
Requested to elucidate her frustrations, a tearful Gauff mentioned: “I feel it’s as a result of I labored actually exhausting and I felt actually good coming into the match and I nonetheless really feel good. I nonetheless really feel like I’ve improved loads.
“However while you play a participant like her and he or she performs rather well, it’s like there’s nothing you are able to do.
“So it’s slightly bit irritating on that half.”
Gauff was the seventh seed in Melbourne and had began the season promisingly, profitable the ASB Basic in Auckland earlier this month for the third WTA singes title of her profession.
However Ostapenko held agency when it mattered, saving seven of the eight break factors she confronted, whereas taking all three of her probabilities on Gauff’s serve.
“I feel each loss is considerably in my management as a result of I do really feel like I’m a very good participant, however at the moment she simply performed higher,” Gauff added, per Reuters.
“There have been moments within the match the place I used to be getting annoyed as a result of I usually can downside resolve however at the moment I really feel like I didn’t have a lot solutions to what she was doing.
“There have been balls I used to be hitting deep and he or she was hitting them on the road and hitting them again deep, like, over and over. It’s simply a type of days that simply didn’t go my approach and went her approach.”
Ostapenko is thru to the quarterfinals for the primary time in Melbourne Park and can play Elena Rybakina, who defeated ladies’s world No. 1 Iga Światek on Sunday.
Former French Open champion Rybakina, 23, defeated the 21-year-old 6-4 6-4 on Rod Laver Enviornment.
Światek was the match favourite after reaching the semifinals final yr and profitable eight titles in 2022, together with two grand slams.
“I felt the stress, and I felt that ‘I don’t wish to lose’ as a substitute of ‘I wish to win’. In order that’s, I feel, a base of what I ought to concentrate on in (the) subsequent couple of weeks,” Światek informed reporters.
Rybakina, who was born in Russia however has represented Kazakhstan since 2018, received her maiden grand slam title at Wimbledon final yr and the primary for Kazakhstan.
Third seed Pegula is now the highest-ranked participant left within the ladies’s draw after she defeated Czech Barbora Krejcikova 7-5 6-2 in a single hour and 41 minutes.
The 2023 Australian Open runs by means of January 29 in Melbourne.
