Gauff: "I did everything wrong, I have no answers"

Diego Jiménez Rubio | 27 Jan 2026 | 11.38

Coco Gauff explains her defeat against Svitolina in Australia. Photo: gettyimages

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Multi-organ failure for Cori Gauff at the 2026 Australian Open. That's what was experienced in the quarterfinal match between the world number 3 and Elina Svitolina, who took advantage of her opponent's poor performance. The American appeared at the press conference visibly affected by her tough loss and analyzed her feelings.

It seems unbelievable that Cori Gauff is only 21 years old. She has been making headlines for so long and established in the elite that many assume she must handle all situations in her career with exquisite maturity. This is not the case, as there is still a wide margin for improvement in many aspects, evident on days like the one she experienced at the 2026 Australian Open against Elina Svitolina. Devastated and without excuses, the American explained what happened on the court.

Gauff speaks of the helplessness and frustration felt against Svitolina in Australia

"I need to figure out how to avoid playing like I did today. Simply put, I did everything wrong, I have no answers. Elina played a great match, and I couldn't match her level. I tried to stay positive, after the first set, I was convinced I could bounce back, but I found myself trailing 0-3. I made constant errors with my forehand, backhand, returns... Nothing worked for me today. In the end, I was very frustrated to see that none of my strengths as a tennis player were there," she stated.

The American made quite a statement by smashing a racket in a hallway of the tournament facilities and, when asked about it at the press conference, she was straightforward. "Look, I don't like people seeing me like that and sought out a place where I thought there would be no cameras. That wasn't the case. I know myself, and when I'm that angry, I don't want to take it out on my team because they don't deserve it. I try not to smash rackets in public to set a bad example for young players, but I needed to let off steam so I wouldn't vent my frustration on others," she commented.

She also confessed what the issue was with the tension of her rackets, requesting them to be restrung with a different tension midway through the match. "I went into the match with the tension I usually use, but I had doubts because I wasn't sure if the roof was going to be closed. I felt like the ball was coming off slower than usual, but that wasn't the reason for my poor performance. I tried to change my feelings in that regard, but I'm not very detail-oriented about that," Coco affirmed.

Cori Gauff remains optimistic about the future despite the defeat

One of the novelties in Cori Gauff's game this season is a change in her service mechanics. It hasn't quite worked out for her in this 2025 Australian Open, but the world number 3 wants to draw positive conclusions. "I need to learn from this and know how to manage my serve when nothing else is going well. I need to find a way to win matches without playing well, and the serve can help with that," detailed the American.

"I feel like I'm heading in the right direction in my work with the serve. It's definitely not where I want it to be yet, but I feel like I'm serving better now than last year. I need to make my second serve more reliable and make my improvement in aggression on the first serve more consistent," argued Cori Gauff, who will seek to bounce back from these negative feelings in upcoming events, trusting in regaining her best tennis.

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Gauff: "Lo hice todo mal, no tengo respuestas"

Cori Gauff