Mirra Andreeva came agonizingly close to solving the Coco Gauff puzzle on Wednesday. Instead, one of the toughest losses of her season left her wondering whether she should have been just a little braver when it mattered most.
The reigning Roland Garros champion squandered two match points in the second set before falling to Gauff 2-6, 7-6(8), 6-2 at the US Open, dropping to 0-6 in their head-to-head.
Afterwards, Andreeva admitted she wished she had taken more initiative with the match on her racquet.
“Maybe risk more, I guess,” Andreeva said. “I think at that moment I kind of just wanted to play, you know, wanted to make a rally, a longer point. So I think that if I maybe would have gone for something more risky to see what would have happened, maybe that would be the only thing that I would change.”
Once Gauff escaped the second set, the momentum shifted dramatically. Andreeva’s frustration eventually spilled over after she had spent much of the match trying to keep her emotions contained.
“I felt like I was holding my emotions for too long,” she said. “In the second set, as well, after having match points, losing the set. But yeah, then at one point I just felt like, you know, I needed to let it out.”
The defeat was Andreeva’s sixth in as many meetings with Gauff, and she believes she is beginning to understand why the American has been such a difficult opponent for her.
“I think she’s just more patient than me,” Andreeva said. “At some moments she makes less mistakes, and obviously she gets a lot of balls back, which I think after, I’m the one that’s trying to rush and make more mistakes than her.”
For Andreeva, there will be plenty to digest from a match that was within two points of being one of her biggest victories of the season.
But after coming closer than ever to beating Gauff, she also knows what she wants to do differently the next time they meet.
So I think that it’s something to also see and take into account for the next matches that I will play against her.
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