Serving at 4-4 in the first set against Iga Swiatek in Rome on Thursday, Coco Gauff looked and sounded confident. She reached 40-0 with an ace that touched down on the T, and followed it up with a forceful “Come on!” She seemed sure to hold and go up 5-4.
On the next point, Gauff got a look at a mid-court backhand. She had been pounding that shot relentlessly through the first eight games, leaping into it, taking it down the line, hitting winners with it—and, yes, making some errors, too. This time, she tried something different, a drop shot. She hit it cleanly, but not quite high enough, and it found the tape. The commentators calling the match agreed that it was a good miss, and that mixing it up would pay dividends for her in the long run. I thought the same thing at the time.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that now, and I doubt Gauff does, either. On the next point, at 40-15, she rushed and overhit a backhand into the net. At 40-30, Swiatek blocked a return back that was coming at her head, then fired a forehand winner to make it deuce. Then Gauff double-faulted two straight times to lose the game.
Swiatek had the break she was looking for, and we all know what happens after that—she runs away with the match. A few minutes later, she won the first set 6-4, and she went on to win the second 6-3. Gauff opened the door by a millimeter with that drop-shot miss, and Swiatek barged through it, the way No. 1 players tend to do.
