Coco Gauff will be playing in the semi-finals of this year’s French Open. The 21-year-old defeated fellow American player Madison Keys 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6-1.
The tennis champion won the game in two hours and 11 minutes, according to The Guardian. The victory propelled her to the semi-finals at the Roland Garros for the third time in her career.
Coco Gauff on going up against Madison Keys
“Maddie was playing well,” Gauff said. “She’s hitting the ball so fast and so low so I was just trying to fight for each point.”
“I knew I had to be able to run and as soon as the ball came short punish her for it,” she added. “I’m very happy to get through and be in the semi-finals again. I’ll savour this one today and be ready for tomorrow’s match.”
During the match, Gauff switched rackets. She doesn’t know if different tension in the strings helped her or if it was mental.
“Maybe it did, and maybe it didn’t. I’d like to think that it helped a little bit,” she said, according to ESPN. “Sometimes that stuff could just be mental. Maybe you’re thinking, ‘Oh, I changed my racket, I’m going to play better,’ and you start doing it. I don’t know.”
Coco Gauff attributes her success to her ‘love to win’
Gauff said she has always had a drive for winning. The tennis player won the 2023 US Open when she was 19 years old and was a runner-up at the French Open a year prior.
“I have had that in me from a young age,” she said, ESPN reported. “When times become more difficult, knowing that I can dig deep in those tough moments.”
“Just a love to win, the will to win. It’s not something that’s taught or anything. It’s just I have always had that in me, and not just in tennis but in everything. I’m a very competitive person,” Gauff added. “My philosophy is if I can just leave it all out there, then the loss will hurt a lot less than regrets of maybe not giving it your all.”
On Thursday, Gauff will face French player Loïs Boisson in the semi-final. Gauff recently became the youngest woman to claim 25 main-draw wins at the French Open since Martina Hingis (1995-2000).
