Coco Gauff has been criticised following her defeat to Karolina Muchova in Stuttgart.
Gauff won the French Open last year, and also reached the final of both the Italian Open and Madrid Open in an impressive clay court season.
As a result, Gauff faces a lot of pressure to defend ranking points in the coming weeks.
The American did not have an ideal start to the clay court season, as Gauff lost to Karolina Muchova in the Stuttgart quarterfinals.
Rennae Stubbs criticises Coco Gauff’s attitude in her defeat to Karolina Muchova
Prior to their meeting in Stuttgart, Gauff had won all six previous matches against Muchova, losing just one of the 13 sets they had played.
However, Gauff’s dominance in their head-to-head came to an end after Muchova beat her 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
When discussing this match on her podcast, former doubles world number one Rennae Stubbs criticised Gauff’s demeanour on court during her match against Muchova.
Stubbs went on to tell Gauff that she cannot keep showing her opponents this sort of negative body language if she wants to defend her French Open title.
“I have to say and I don’t know how you felt about this, Coco is getting very p**** on the court,” claimed Stubbs.
“If I was coaching her, after that I would take her to the side and say, ‘You have not lost one match to this girl, not one match and you are looking like, A – You are playing like s***, B – You don’t think you can win and C – You’re giving her a look in down the end of maybe she doesn’t have it today’.
“Like why are you giving your opponent any positive or negative feedback from you at all? Like that was very interesting for me and she had the s**** the whole match. She was looking and she said to her box a couple of times, ‘Tell me what to do’ or ‘I don’t know what to do’, and I’m like my god you’ve not lost to this girl one time and yet you’re getting so frustrated. It was very confusing to me, even though Karolina played excellent.”
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Stubbs later added, “…This is the defending French Open champion. I was so confused by that and you know, you have opportunities as a coach to say something to your player and I would have and said ‘Listen, you cannot show her anything negative’.
“She would miss a return and put her hands in the air. For someone that we really love and respect in Coco Gauff, and her attitude and her fighting ability, I mean she was fighting, she was trying to win a game and she’d be like ‘Come on’ and she never, ever gives up and she never quit in this match.
“It was more along the lines of you had to realise that Karolina Muchova was coming with some good s*** today, she was playing well. And in the end, it’s like okay you just have to admit that your opponent is playing very well, you’re not playing great.
“She was making really bad unforced errors, on the backhand even, the forehand making a ton of errors on the forehand, and not serving well. That’s the bottom line and Karolina was taking advantage of that.
“The thing I was taking away the most was how well Karolina played and believed in herself to win this match, but also just how Coco just very p**** pants on court. If it was me, going forward if you want to win the French Open again you’ve got to cut that off, period.”
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Who is Coco Gauff playing at the Madrid Open?
Gauff will look to change her fortunes at the Madrid Open, where she achieved her best result last year by reaching the final.
The world number three will not have the opportunity to get revenge on Muchova, who has withdrawn from the Madrid Open.
Some of the potential threats to Gauff in her half of the draw include Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula and Linda Noskova.
Gauff will first have her focus on playing her opening match, which will be against either Oksana Selekhmeteva or a qualifier.
This match will take place on Friday, April 24, as Gauff receives a bye as a seeded player.
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