Coco Gauff says what occurred in her match against Belinda Bencic which she really didn’t want to happen

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Coco Gauff saw her Indian Wells campaign come to an end after losing to Belinda Bencic in three sets.

Gauff had made Indian Wells history by reaching the fourth round of the WTA 1000 tournament again, but could not take it any further.

However, it has not been with some of her best tennis, with Gauff admittedly disappointed with some of her performances in California.

This is something that Gauff dealt with to win the US Open in 2023, but was unable to bypass it in her fourth round match against Bencic.

Coco Gauff says what she didn’t want to happen against Belinda Bencic that did

Bencic has been in good form since returning to the WTA Tour, after giving birth to her first child last year, something that Gauff was aware of when speaking in her post-match press conference.

However, the world number three admitted that she let her opponent dictate too much with her backhand.

“I felt like today, I mean, against Belinda is tough, because she hits the ball so low and flat, so it’s tough to kind of hit how I would like, but, I mean, I made some errors in the last game and also in the game before,” said Gauff.

“I don’t know. This feels like one of those things where I kind of have to go for more margin. Also, at the same time, the match was four-all in the third set, and we were kind of holding serve, both of us were holding serve.

“Maybe on the far side the wind was more with me, so I think maybe I overplayed those balls for sure. I felt like on the closer side to my box, it was definitely against the wind and it was harder to hit through.

“So, yeah, I think there is a balance in it, but I think today, honestly, I felt like I let her dictate a lot from the backhand corner. I think that’s something that I don’t want to happen, especially I feel like that’s the corner I should be more so dictating.”

Coco Gauff explains what changed with her serve against Belinda Bencic

Gauff’s serve is often a topic of debate, particularly after she hit 21 double faults in her opening match at Indian Wells against Moyuka Uchijima.

This slightly improved round on round, resulting in Gauff bringing it down to eight double faults against Bencic.

However, the second serve win percentage remained at a low 33%, whereas Bencic was up at 50%.

When asked about her serve, Gauff revealed that she had taken to the practise court to make some changes to it, but was not completely happy with how she executed it, highlighting the penultimate game where she was broken from 40-love up.

“I think it’s all connected. We kind of changed a lot of things with the serve,” explained the 21-year-old. “I don’t want to get into specifics of it, but yeah, I mean, I went on the practice court after the first day and then after the other day.

:You know, I still think I could have served better. Was obviously more consistent, but definitely want to get more aggressive with it. It was kind of one of those things where I started the tournament not serving well, so it’s more so just trying to get it in.

“That doesn’t mean — I mean, I hit some good serves today, but I feel like especially in that last game, up 40-Love, I probably could have went bigger in those moments. But yeah, like you said, it is an improvement, and hopefully can continue to do better from here.”

Gauff will now turn her attention to the Miami Open, while Bencic will play in the Indian Wells quarter-finals against Australian Open champion Madison Keys.