Coco Gauff will start her French Open title defense by trying not to play against herself

PARIS — Look no further than Coco Gauff’s shots during her French Open first-round match against Taylor Townsend to find out how her day is going.

Look at his eyes. Look over his shoulders. Look at his racket. Two Sundays ago she hit her head midway through the Italian Open final against Elina Svitolina.

“It didn’t hurt,” she said at a news conference on Friday as she prepared to defend her title at Roland Garros. “My ponytail was big.”

It’s been a rough nine months for Gauff, a two-time Grand Slam champion and the 22-year-old women’s game’s biggest star. According to Sportico, Gauff was the highest-paid female athlete last year, earning $31 million in prize money and sponsorships.

After her quarterfinal loss to Svitolina at the Australian Open, cameras caught Gauff breaking her racket under the stadium. He thought he had found a private place. He didn’t do that. Their irritation about this has led tennis tournaments to consider their own strategy for behind-the-scenes videos that serve as satire for fans.

Gough has recently adopted a different strategy for handling her emotions, although not the one she planned.

For most of her career, Gauff has rarely displayed anything close to a meltdown, rarely wrestling with the emotional demons that so often destroy tennis players. He has an amazing ability to ride the waves, fist-bumping and shouting with enthusiasm on his biggest and best shots to raise his level, without succumbing to the spirals that can come along and usually accelerate a decline in performance.

This has become more challenging for Gauff in recent months. He has mentioned the difficulties off the court, due to which it has become difficult to stay on the court. They have come as he has tried to maintain his lofty status among the game’s elite by remaking two of the game’s most important shots, his serve and his forehand. That process, too, has affected his confidence and his determination.

It’s enough. Lately, the results have been quite good, even though reaching them has been challenging in every way.

Gauff is a perfectionist who is never truly satisfied until she lifts the trophies. Nevertheless, since January, she has made two WTA 1000 finals, losing both in three tough sets. Through it all, lots of trouble and slaps on the thighs, he kept a good grip on his box. She’ll miss the shot and bring her hand up to her face, shake her head and talk to herself in that manner that all tennis players know, “How could you make that mistake?”

She would like this not to happen.

“I have a therapist I’ve been going to for a long time, and also just journaling,” she said at a French Open news conference on Friday. She knows what negativity can be like, especially in a sport where even the best players lose about half their points.

“When I’m playing a match, I really want to win every point in the best possible way. Obviously, that doesn’t happen for me all the time.

“I think I can see where I want to be, and I want to be there very badly. But I’m just trying to focus on the process right now: the ups and downs of the tennis journey. It’s something I can hone in on and sometimes do well, and sometimes I don’t do so well.”

Anger and frustration are occupational hazards in tennis, a solitary sport in which players battle alone for hours on big courts. Failure – all those lost points – is inevitable even on a good day. Figuring out how to hold it together is just as important as having a strong backhand.

“I had a very bad attitude when I was younger and my father spoke to me sternly about it,” four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka told a news conference in Paris.

“I actually curse a lot,” she said. “I say it so softly you can’t hear it, and I’m really happy, because I don’t want to pay a fine for it.”

There are only a few players who can survive the mind-boggling explosions and win the match, it appears that they use that explosion to clear the mind and create a moment. Novak Djokovic is an expert in this.

World No. 1, Aryna Sabalenka, thought she was, too. Then, late last year, she realized she wasn’t. Opponents felt that Sabalenka’s conduct indicated that a decline was underway. Gauff was one of them, standing across the net in last year’s French Open final. When it was over and Gauff lifted the trophy, Sabalenka blamed the defeat on circumstances, her own poor play, and Gauff’s luck. He later apologized for not giving Gauff enough credit. They have moved beyond this.

“I think my emotions were destroying my game and my level was dropping dramatically when I started overreacting to everything,” Sabalenka said during a press conference on Friday. “My opponents will see it and they will step up and play better.”

It was impossible to stay bottled up, but there was a middle ground. His mindset and fitness guru, Jason Stacey, gave him a six-word mantra: “Don’t fight it. Don’t feed it.”

Sabalenka has learned to control her emotions by breathing out anger, controlling her breathing. She still loses, but rarely does she let herself be defeated. It’s been a win-win.

“Making sure my opponent can’t see what’s going on in my mind, and at the same time, perform better and stay in the field,” he said. “It was a huge improvement in my career over the last few years and really helped me move forward.”

How well Gauff manages her emotions could go a long way in determining whether she will successfully defend her title. She has been open about the process since the early stages of her career. In 2020, she wrote about it in a post for Behind the Racket, sharing that she almost walked away from tennis just before reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2019 at the age of 15.

“Going back to around 2017-18, I was struggling to figure out if this was what I really wanted. I always had results, so that wasn’t the issue. I found that I wasn’t able to enjoy what I liked,” Gough wrote.

“I’m trying to be transparent, but also not trying to give away my business to the whole world,” she said after a three-set opening victory over Solana Sierra at the Italian Open. It was filled with joyless body language, caused by Gauff losing touch with her relaxation routines, such as reaching into her towel and breathing or eating some fruit.

“I want to be transparent and vulnerable, I want people to know that we’re open when we’re not always 100 percent perfect. It’s a good balance,” she said.

After two matches, Gauff found herself locked in a quarterfinal duel with Mira Andreeva. After leading Andreeva by a set, Gauff was flailing as the Russian teenager tried to take the lead in the second set.

Gauff continued to advance during the match and amid negative emotions. In the final set, she nearly squandered a 5–1 lead, and became too passive as the match began to wind down instead of finishing it.

Something new happened when Andreeva saved several match points. Gauff began to build on her strength after errors, reminding herself that she could lose points but still play great tennis against a formidable opponent.

After two matches, in the final against Svitolina, the new habits came back. Hit on the head with a racket. She was disappointed after losing the first set, when she was on the verge of winning it.

When it was over, with Svitolina reaching the finish line, Gauff thought about the long 10 days and the title defense.

“This week, I experienced all the ups and downs of the tournament,” she said. “I’ve been behind, had the lead, lost the lead, been in the final, been down match point. I feel like I’ve experienced every scenario. It can prepare me for Roland Garros. Hopefully, I can really learn from each scenario and get better.”