Coco Gauff enjoyed an outstanding tournament in her home town, but could not topple Aryna Sabalenka to claim the Miami Open title.
On the night, the Belarusian was just too good, providing her usual magic whilst upping her game at the crucial moments to complete her Sunshine Double.
For her, it’s now time for celebration, having bounced back brilliantly from losing the Australian Open final earlier this year.
However, for Coco Gauff, focus will instantly shift to the clay-court swing, having already identified what she will learn from the Miami Open final.
Coco Gauff gives her honest assessment of how the Miami Open final went
Speaking to the WTA, it felt like Gauff had truly moved on from such a disappointing result.
After all, whilst she spoke well during the runners-up speech, and in her press conference after, both came whilst emotions were still running high.
Do you think Coco Gauff will win a Grand Slam title this year?
This interview, however, seemed to have been performed some time after the conclusion of the match.
Gauff explained where she felt things went wrong for her, gifting Aryna Sabalenka the initiative needed to go on and snag the title: “Yeah, I think just some of the bigger moments I felt I didn’t do as well as I feel like I can do.
“I thought I was like a lot of times in the return games, a lot of 30 alls, a lot of deuces, break points, and | just didn’t come over that hump. And the third set, I think, you know, the game I’ll learn from is the first game of the match, being 30-love and just remembering to continue to be aggressive in that moment and trusting myself in those moments.
“But yeah, there’s a lot to learn from, but I am happy with, you know, the mentality that I approach the match with.”
The 22-year-old then turned her attention to the home crowd, adding: “Yeah, it’s a lot to be proud of.
“It’s been a long week, a lot of long matches, but, yeah, I’ve only had one straight-sets match this week.
“But yeah, just to see them in the stands and the support and see how proud they are of me, despite, you know, this is not the result any of us wanted, but, you know, it’s been a long time coming.
“I feel like playing this tournament so many times and never quite really doing any damage going into the draw, so it is nice to finally get, like, a deep result here and hopefully one day I’ll have the big one.”
Afterwards, Martina Navratilova actually told Gauff the exact reason why she lost the Miami Open final.
Aryna Sabalenka stopped Coco Gauff from making history
Whilst winning Miami would have been a huge personal and professional success for Gauff, the loss was actually even more damaging than first realised.
After all, had Sabalenka not claimed the title, the American would have instead cemented herself in the history books.
How many Grand Slams will Aryna Sabalenka win this year?
She looks unstoppable right now!
Before the match, she had enjoyed a 100% win rate in hard-court finals, winning all nine that she had competed in.
She was tied with Martina Hingis, and Gauff needed to beat the Belarusian to stand alone at the top of this particular table.
Sadly, it was not to be, and the two-time major champion will therefore have to be content with sharing a place beside Hingis.
