Coco Gauff, the rising star of the USA’s tennis scene, is currently going through doom and gloom. A few weeks ago, she was dreaming of securing her spot as one of the youngest Olympic tennis champions, and now she is dealing with a significant tactical error. As she lost the 2024 Toronto Open in the second round, a former professional decodes what could have been done better to avoid this.

Gauff lost against Diana Shnaider by 4-6 and 1-6 today at the Round of 16 in Toronto. After her defeat, former German tennis player Andrea Petkovic took a dig at Gauff’s match against Shnaider to point out one of the former’s crucial tactical errors. Petkovic started with the reigning US Open champion’s performance in 2022, when she didn’t earn a Grand Slam, and spoke about how Gauff used to play by positioning herself behind the baseline.

Then slowly, in 2023, she gained confidence and started appearing in front. Her position to play from the baseline brought her one WTA 1000 title in the Cincinnati Open and a Grand Slam in the US Open. “Definitely she is putting it forward. She’s playing. She was playing more aggressively. She was taking the returns early. And we saw it in the stats. We saw it in the records. Coco Gauff was one of the best returners on tour. She was in the top three with Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek and that’s a good kind of group of people to be around,” said Petkovic.

However, this former tennis legend also mentioned how bad form has jeopardized Gauff’s confidence this season, leaving her insecure. As a result, Gauff couldn’t trust herself to go to the baseline to return and pushed back, which Petkovic refers to as the reigning US Open champion’s significant tactical error.

She also mentioned this as one of the reasons why Gauff lost against Shnaider. “And today we saw it. We talked about it in the first set. She kept it back again. She went back and we have a number for that too. And this is today against Shnaider,” Petkovic concluded.

While Petkovic’s analysis reveals Gauff’s drawbacks before another Grand Slam hits the calendar, the American WTA star previously didn’t have much hope about her Canadian Open participation.

Coco Gauff admitted difficulties in transitioning from Paris Olympics’ clay surface to Toronto’s hard court

Gauff had participated in her debut Olympics in Paris this year and was also one of the main flagbearers for her country. This event was truly special for her, given she couldn’t attend the Tokyo Olympics due to contracting Covid-19. This American WTA star prepped really well for the Paris Olympics and felt participating on Toronto’s hard court right after that was quite challenging. “I have no expectations for this week. I’m not going into this expecting to win. It will obviously be great. That’s the goal. But, to be realistic, I was on clay three days ago. So, yeah, I think overall I’m just using this just to see where I’m at what I need to do to get ready for US Open,” she said.

While Gauff’s logic for her loss in Toronto makes sense, one can’t completely ignore Petkovic’s point about Gauff’s lack of confidence. Despite not winning any significant titles, Gauff won the French Open doubles, with Siniakova showing her talent in the sport. Keeping faith in that same brilliance, people wish Gauff to rectify her shortcomings and impress the fraternity with her mind-blowing performance on the court.