Coco Gauff arrived in Toronto without many expectations, but she certainly didn't think she would lose already in her second match, still, Andrea Petkovic thinks that may have been a good thing.
During the Olympic years, the second part of summer ends up being a very packed schedule for tennis players. The Olympics add a week of tennis that isn't there usually which put the Canadian Open in a tricky spot this year.
Starting one day after the Olympics, it was expected that some of the best may withdraw from the tournaments in Montreal and Toronto, and that was the case.
Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz aren't playing at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal. Iga Swiatek is also not in Toronto, but quite a few players who played in Paris signed up to play.
One of those is Gauff, who made the trip to Canada and started well with a solid win. However, her next match proved to be a major letdown, as she was bested by Diana Shnaider in two sets.
It was a disappointing loss for the American, but it was not a major surprise. She was honest about keeping her expectations low for this week due to fatigue related to her participation at the Olympic Games.
Shnaider has also been playing well for a while now, which made her a very difficult opponent early on. However, this loss might even prove to be a blessing in disguise for the 2023 US Open winner.
That's according to former WTA player Andrea Petkovic, who shared her thoughts on the situation during a recent appearance on the Tennis Channel.
"I hope it was just a bad day at the office. I do strongly believe that losses can set something great off, as we saw last year when she had a bad loss."
"I do think there were a few tactical issues with her game today, which is something she needs to take a good look at. I'm an absolute optimist. I think this could be good for her."
Petkovic has been a professional for a very long time, and she has seen it all when it comes to tennis. She knows that losses don't have to be bad; they can sometimes be transformative.
Gauff's admission of the low expectations signals a maturity in which she understood that things would be complicated in Toronto. The flip side of that coin is that she will arrive in Cincinnati with a clean slate.
Getting that struggle week out of the way will allow her to arrive confident in Cincinnati. It might sound counterintuitive, but the first event will rarely go well after a change of surfaces.
She got that out of the way in Toronto, playing two matches. She will now arrive in Cincinnati feeling much more comfortable. With a few more matches, the American should arrive in New York ready for the US Open. That's the ultimate goal for her as the title defender.
When analyzing Gauff's performance, one of the tactical errors Petkovic noticed was getting back on the return. Part of what made her so good last year when she went on that run was stepping in and being more aggressive on her return.
Against Shnaider, she took a step back and paid the price for it. That's fixable and nothing to be concerned about, as the 20-year-old will likely show at the 2024 Cincinnati Open.
0 Comments