Coco Gauff‘s coach, Brad Gilbert, recently expressed his belief that Gauff would have won last month’s Roland Garros had Naomi Osaka defeated Iga Swiatek in the tournament.
Gauff suffered another defeat to Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros, marking her third consecutive loss to the Polish player at the major event. In fact, she has lost to the eventual tournament champion in her last four appearances at the French Open (including a loss to Barbora Krejcikova in 2021).
Gauff made her first Grand Slam final appearance at the French Open two years ago, where she reached the title match without dropping a set. However, she was unable to overcome the relentless Swiatek and finished as the runner-up, winning only four games in the final.
In the following year, she was knocked out in the quarterfinals in another straight-sets defeat. This year, there were signs of progress as Gauff pushed Swiatek to her limits at the Italian Open, but she ultimately suffered her 10th loss in their head-to-head matchups.
The much-anticipated semifinal showdown between Swiatek and Gauff almost did not happen at this year’s Roland Garros. In a second-round match, Swiatek faced a match point against Naomi Osaka but managed to secure the victory.
Reflecting on that match, Gauff’s coach, Brad Gilbert, shared his conviction with ESPN while covering Wimbledon that Gauff was destined to win the tournament if Swiatek had lost to Osaka.
“Let me tell you if Naomi wins that match point against Iga (Swiatek) at Roland Garros, Coco (Gauff) was winning that tournament.”
Although Swiatek was close to defeat in that match, she prevailed in three sets and went on to dominate the rest of the tournament, losing only 19 games in total. This highlights the mental barrier Gauff faces when competing against Swiatek.
