New York, Sep 11 (IANS) : Coco Gauff was left hurting after her US Open title hopes came to an end with a three-set defeat to Elena Rybakina, but the American insisted she would use the disappointment as another learning experience and continue putting herself in positions to win.
Gauff, the No. 3 seed, surrendered a one-set lead against Rybakina in the semifinal at Arthur Ashe Stadium, eventually going down 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and eight minutes.
“Right now it sucks. My dad came up and said, ‘You have accomplished so many things this summer,’ and I just said, ‘I don’t care about the summer. ‘ Right now that is where my head is at,” Gauff told reporters after the match.
Gauff admitted that while she was proud of her overall progress, the immediate disappointment of missing another opportunity to win a Grand Slam remained difficult to overcome.
“But it is the goal. I want to be a consistent player, and I want to give myself as many opportunities as I can to lift the trophy,” she said.
“But it hurts. It’s all great, but I think the competitor in me is like, this is the tournament that I want to perform at. I did perform, but it’s the tournament you want to come out with the win.”
The 21-year-old said she would take lessons from the defeat and hoped to keep putting herself in similar positions in the future.
“It’s a learning experience, and I hope to keep putting myself in positions to hopefully win,” Gauff said.
Looking back at her campaign in New York, Gauff felt she had largely been able to play the kind of tennis she wanted, despite a difficult quarterfinal performance.
“I think I played almost every match on my terms. I think the worst match for me was maybe the quarter-final, where I maybe fell back into old habits, but in 24 hours I was able to switch that, and I think that it’s confidence to continue to improve,” she said.
Gauff also drew encouragement from the fact that she still has plenty of time to develop her game and challenge for more major titles.
“I am looking at the other semi-finalists. They are older than me, by three or four years, and I’m just trying to think of how much work I have put in this year and how far I have come,” she said.
“Now I am just excited to keep putting in the work for another year or another two years and see where I’m at at 24 or 25. I want to see where my game can take me, and hopefully it can be on the winning end of matches like this,” she added.
Gauff had made a strong start, breaking Rybakina in the sixth game of the opening set before serving it out 6-3.
The momentum then shifted as Rybakina broke in the fourth game of the second set to move 4-1 ahead. Gauff fought back to level the set at 4-4, but the Kazakh struck again in the 10th game to force a decider.
The third set remained tightly contested before Rybakina broke in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead. Gauff refused to go quietly, earning her first break point of the set and converting it with the help of a brilliant backhand passing shot to level the set back on serve.
However, Rybakina responded immediately, breaking in the 10th game to complete the comeback and book a place in the final against Aryna Sabalenka.
