Defending French Open champion Coco Gauff suffered a shock third-round exit at Roland-Garros as the world No 4 was beaten 4-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 by Anastasia Potapova.
Gauff struggled to handle the 28th-seeded Potapova’s aggressive tennis but bagged the opening set, only to allow her opponent to come back strongly in the next two and clinch the victory.
Potapova rattled Gauff with powerful baseline hitting and broke to love in the opening game, then took a 4-2 lead before the American came storming back to take four games on the spin to claim the first set.
Potapova immediately ramped up the pressure again to grab a double break at the start of the second set. The Austrian was on the verge of levelling the match when 5-2 up, but back came Gauff again.
She moved through the gears to surge ahead by again claiming four games in a row, only to lose the next and then the set in a tiebreak where her serve let her down.
The pair traded breaks in a breathless decider, but Gauff eventually lost her way as Potapova took control and went through in style for a meeting with 22nd seed Anna Kalinskaya in the fourth round.
“She was able to finish the points and I wasn’t,” Gauff said. “Just not capitalising on certain shots.”
Gauff’s second Grand Slam title came with a victory over top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in the final at Roland Garros a year ago.
The 30th-world-ranked Potapova, who was born in Russia but now represents Austria, improved to 3-2 in her career against Gauff. She’s having quite a clay season after reaching a final in Linz, Austria, and the semi-finals of the Madrid Open as a qualifier.
The fourth-ranked Gauff was coming off a run to the Italian Open final. She was beaten in Rome by Elina Svitolina – another player who can match her on long rallies.
“I lost the same way in Rome as I did here,” Gauff said. “You never want to lose the same way back-to-back times.”
