PARIS — When Coco Gauff’s most recent opponent at the French Open, 30th-seeded Dayana Yastremska, returned to the locker room in Court Philippe Chatrier on Friday, she pulled out her phone to study video clips of the 6-2, 6-4 loss to her American foe.
“I just was really curious what I did wrong,” explained Yastremska, a semifinalist at the Australian Open in January.
In reviewing footage of the third-round match, the 24-year-old Ukrainian realized she repeatedly made the mistake of trying to go for too much and end points too early. She acknowledged that she allowed her concentration to waver for various reasons — the wind gusting at up to 25 mph, the dismay at barely missing some shots, the way balls kept coming back over the net from the third-seeded Gauff.
To be sure, there were ways in which Gauff, the reigning U.S. Open champion, could have been distracted, too — especially while letting a 5-2 lead in the second set slip away so much that, on three occasions, the score was a single point from 5-all.
“It was a little bit difficult, I think mentally, to stay focused and not got too mad,” Gauff said, “but I’m glad that I was able to push through.”