Jo Durie has explained what let Coco Gauff down in today’s loss against Aryna Sabalenka.
The co-commentator was speaking live on Eurosport after the latter claimed victory, 6-7 (7), 6-4, to stride into her second successive Australian Open final.
So, what did Durie have to say about the American during a stint on commentary? Let’s take a closer look…
What Jo Durie has said about Coco Gauff
As a mainstay commentator of British tennis for many years now, Durie is a voice many will be familiar with.
And, as a former world number five, she is mightily informed on what it takes to reach the top of the sport.
So, to see her offer some words of advice to Gauff will be useful for the 19-year-old, even if she likely knows herself what let her down earlier today.
Serving a disappointing eight double faults, many of which came at crucial points in the match, her consistency was shot with regularity.
And Durie would emphasise this following the match, as she said live on Eurosport (10:25 am): ‘It’s tough for Gauff to take, pretty emotional, there were some issues lurking in her game.
‘Nothing too dramatic, we saw plenty of brilliant stuff, but you do wonder how costly those double faults were in the end. She did just have to resist and resist because Sabalenka was the one pressing.’
Sabalenka set to claim an easy Australian Open title
This is hardly an outlandish claim from the co-commentator, who said what everybody else was probably thinking.
Gauff, despite battling hard against the physical and often domineering Sabalenka, struggled throughout with her service game.
However, that is often the case with most who face the titanic Belarusian.
Her ability to strike winners off the forehand or backhand, from any area of the court, is one which will certainly play on the minds of her opponents.
So, should their powerful first serve fail to hit the mark, they are then opening themselves up to a potential hammer return should their second not catch the world number two by surprise.
This was almost certainly the case with Gauff, who almost seemed to be overcompensating for that fear on many occasions. She would win just 39% of points on her far weaker second serve.
Sabalenka is now an overwhelming favourite to win the tournament, unsurprisingly, given the weakness of the other side of the draw.
She would thank the fans for their support post-match, as Emma Raducanu had done earlier in the tournament, who have been in full voice for nearly two weeks now.
Today felt like the final before the final, and having won it in straight sets against the same player who beat her in the 2023 US Open final, she must surely feel confident of adding to her sole Grand Slam win.
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