Tennis: Tennis-‘Too many free points’: Gauff rues poor service game in US Open loss to Navarro

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Coco Gauff said she had regrets over her poor service game after recording 19 double faults in Sunday’s U.S. Open fourth round loss to Emma Navarro, even though she was mentally prepared to face her American compatriot who beat her at Wimbledon.

Defending champ Gauff was beaten 6-3 4-6 6-3 by Navarro in a loss where she also made 60 unforced errors with little going right for the third seed at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Gauff said she was “mentally better” to take on Navarro after losing at Wimbledon in straight sets but the 20-year-old said she had to find consistency on her serve if she is to improve.

“I fought really hard today. Overall I think I played well for the most part. I just didn’t take care of my serve, so that was the biggest difference. Too many free points on my serve,” Gauff told reporters.

“Mentally and emotionally I gave it my all. Of course, there were things execution-wise, where I wish I could serve better. I think if I would have did that, it would have been a different story for me in the match.

“But Emma played really well… She was really aggressive on my second serve, putting more pressure on my serve and being solid from the baseline.”

Aryna Sabalenka rose to the top of the rankings last year after she brought a biomechanics trainer on board to help her improve her powerful but erratic serve and Gauff said she was open to considering something similar.

“I definitely want to get other opinions. Also I think it’s sometimes more of an emotional, mental thing because if I go out on the practice court right now, I would make 30 serves in a row. I’ve done it before,” Gauff added.

“I think it’s also just kind of a mental hurdle that I have to get over when it comes with that. But I definitely want to look at other things, because I don’t want to lose matches like this anymore.”

While Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz admitted they had run out of steam after the Paris Olympics, leading to early exits at Flushing Meadows, Gauff said that was not the case as she was excited to compete in New York.

“I felt like physically and mentally ready, but for sure I think in Toronto and Cincy (Cincinnati) it was a little bit mentally draining, those tournaments having to switch surfaces (from claycourt to hard),” Gauff said.

“But coming into this, I didn’t feel any exhaustion. I was actually really excited to play… Even today I felt ready to go on court.”

(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing)