Coco Gauff was unable to claim her first Italian Open title after losing in the final.
Gauff was beaten by Elina Svitolina in the Italian Open final, having also lost in the championship match in Rome last year against Jasmine Paolini.
After losing in the final to the Ukrainian, Gauff admitted making a mistake during the match, claiming that she was ‘too passive’ in important moments.
Gauff’s forehand and serve were also issues during the final, and former world number one Tracy Austin has revealed her wish for the American to change something in her game going forward.
Tracy Austin tells Coco Gauff she should ‘let loose’ on her forehand more
When reflecting on the women’s singles final at the Italian Open, former top 10 player CoCo Vandeweghe and analyst Brett Haber spoke about the ongoing issues with Gauff’s forehand and serve.
Gauff hit a total of 67 unforced errors against Svitolina, with 40 of those coming from her forehand side.
“Well first, you’ve got to lick your wounds a little bit, as you know Tracy [Austin] and Jim [Courier],” said Vandeweghe. “When you come off such a tough battle in the final it really hurts, and you need to take some time to assess and improve what you didn’t do well.
“Coco’s serve left her at inopportune moments, her forehand also disappeared, and the lack of having the ability to change in those two big moments of having match points down or facing all those break points was where Coco really fell short in this match.”
Brett Haber added, “67 unforced today, 40 of those on the forehand wing. We’ve talked in great length about the technical issues with that stroke, with the serve.
“It’s concerning to me to see her be unkind to herself, she’s kind of beating herself up physically in the face a couple times this week, every match is a labour for her, nothing seems to come easy.
“The semifinal against [Sorana] Cirstea was three and four, but other than that she had to come from a set down in every match that she won this year…I’m just concerned that it is mentally taxing on Coco as she arrives in Paris as the defending champion.”
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Jim Courier and Austin then joined the conversation, with the latter revealing her wish for Gauff to hit more freely on her forehand and to not lean back so much.
“Let’s also take a moment and acknowledge that there are things that we don’t know,” said Courier. “She has alluded to some off-court things that are unsettling for her, that have been troubling her, so let’s leave some space for things that we don’t know.
“What we do know and what we do see is a lot of positives out there. She is so gritty, has so much grind in her game, she makes it so tough, even when she has a day when the unforced error count climbs far beyond from where she would want it to be.
“She continues to try and work through her problems, and she is still going to be a problem for whoever is on the other side of the net no matter how she is feeling, because she has got that much fight in her.”
Austin responded, “I think that these were very heavy conditions, so it plays right into Coco’s favour at the beginning. Because Svitolina, how do you get through the defences of Coco Gauff? Coco was lifting the ball high and heavy, got up 4-2 and that’s where the technical problems on the serve and on the forehand, she’s got to continue to clean up.
“We saw for some games where Coco let loose on the forehand, and I wish I could just convince her to do that more often when she’s not on her back foot and kind of leaning back. When she really steps in and lets loose with the racket head speed she can do it, and she was serving well at some points as well.
“But it was really magical to see both of them the way that they scrambled in tough conditions, it was tough to hit winners.”
Where will Coco Gauff be ranked at the end of 2026?
Where will Coco Gauff be seeded at Roland Garros this year?
Despite it being a disappointing end to the tournament for Gauff, it has still been a successful couple of weeks for the defending Roland Garros champion.
It was an important week for Gauff in terms of ranking, as she was at risk of being overtaken by her compatriot Jessica Pegula in the seeding positions for Roland Garros.
However, after reaching the final in Rome again, Gauff has cemented her spot as the fourth seed at Roland Garros this year.
This is important as it means that Gauff will not need to play either top seed Aryna Sabalenka or world number two Elena Rybakina until at least the semifinals.
Gauff is the defending champion at Roland Garros, and she will be hoping to do something that even Serena Williams was unable to do by winning back-to-back titles at the Paris major.
The main draw of Roland Garros will get underway on Sunday, May 24.
