Coco Gauff has won many big WTA matches over the years, despite still being only 20-years-old.
Gauff is currently the world number three, and is one of three American’s ranked inside the top five at the moment.
Her latest victory came against Maria Sakkari, with Gauff making Indian Wells history after progressing to the fourth round of the tournament.
Despite continuing her run at the WTA 1000 tournament, Gauff has admittedly not played her best tennis, but the American has now recalled a match where she did have her A-game.
Coco Gauff recalls match against Anhelina Kalinina where she was ‘gold’
Gauff beat Aryna Sabalenka to win the US Open in 2023, in what is her only Grand Slam title victory to date.
Despite being her biggest title win, Gauff claimed that it was not a great match from her perspective after hitting 19 unforced errors.
The match that Gauff did believe was one of her best was at the 2022 tournament in San Jose, where she lost only one game against Ukrainian player Anhelina Kalinina.
When speaking about other matches where she thinks she played well, Gauff also mentioned the WTA Finals run last year where she won the title after beating Qinwen Zheng in the final.
“Yeah, there is one I played against Kalinina in San Diego [Jose],” Gauff said in her post-match press conference. “I think that was 0-1 or 0-0 match. I think that was really great tennis for me. I just felt like whatever I did was gold.
“I mean, there has been other matches. Sometimes you win, like, I guess the defining of great is kind of result, but for example my match in Riyadh, I thought I played a really, it was a high-quality, really great match regardless if I would have won or lost that match, and maybe a match like US Open final, I still felt like that was not a great match for me.
“It’s kind of weird how we base ourselves sometimes on results. There have times where I feel like I played well like maybe against [Barbora] Krejcikova in Riyadh, I felt I was playing well and she was just better than me that day.
“Yeah, it’s tennis. It’s ups and downs. Sometimes you lose matches that you probably could have won, and you win matches that you definitely shouldn’t have won. At the end of the day, you’ll hopefully win more of those matches than lose.”
Coco Gauff explains whether she defines success by winning
Gauff won the United Cup to begin her 2025 season, but has since struggled for form during the Middle Eastern swing.
When asked about whether she defines success by results, Gauff suggested that it varies based on the way that she loses.
“Yeah. I mean, I guess it depends how you lose,” said Gauff. “If you feel like you have had a focus on the process of what you are working on, for me, if I feel like I did the things that we were working on in practice and the opponent was just better, then it’s, like, okay that was a step forward.
“But, yeah, I mean, obviously never feels great losing, so I guess it’s for me harder to find the positives in the loss. I have been trying to do more of that lately.”
Gauff will play Belinda Bencic in her next match at Indian Wells, as she looks to recreate the tennis that she played against Kalinina in San Jose.
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