RG '26: Coco’s crisis continues, Tiafoe & Faria's TENSE argument, Sabalenka vs Osaka

Coco Gauff's Roland Garros title defense continued with a titanic three-set loss to Anastasia Potapova. Gauff admitted that she keeps losing matches the same way, highlighting her subpar front-running abilities. Naomi Osaka reached her first Roland Garros round of 16 with a hard-fought win vs Iva Jovic, setting up a clash with Aryna Sabalenka. Will Naomi finally get that BIG win? Frances Tiafoe was involved in a heated dispute with Jaime Faria during his five-set comeback win. 

Follow my other social media platforms:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/christianscourt
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christianscourt/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@christianscourt

Business inquiries: christianscourt1@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Once again, I thought we could finally have a relatively drama-free day at Rolling Girls, but day seven said hell no. Our defending ladies champion Coco Golf was eliminated in quite astonishing fashion, falling to Anastasia Potopova 467664. Golf's defeat follows a trend of her losing tight, winnable matches this clay season, raising questions about her ability to be a solid front runner. I'll discuss what went wrong for golf here, preview the latest installment of the Sal Blanc Osaka rivalry, and talk about all the five-set thrillers we witnessed on the men's side. Bonjour, J Mapel Christian Bass Night at Benvenue Ala Christian's Court, where I cover tennis from all angles. If you have not yet already, make sure you subscribe and click the notification bell so you're notified whenever I post my day eight recap. I'm losing the track of the days, y'all. But with her three-set loss to Anastasia Potopova, Coco Golf suffered her earliest loss at Roland Garrow since 2020, and it was her first loss to a woman not named Igos Fiontek since 2021, where she lost to Babora Kreichigova in the quarterfinals. This result itself isn't all that surprising because I knew and a lot of people knew when the draw came out that Potopova would be very tough. She had lost her last two matches, golf had to Anastasia. Plus Potopova, she'd been playing great all clay season. She had a 13-3 record on the clay. She made the finals of Lent and had a number of good wins, including when she defeated Elena Robacana in Madrid. That Robacina win was actually low-key a little bit similar to what we saw here with Coco because it was a very top C turvy match with numerous momentum shifts. And Anastasia herself is a very back and forth player, a lot of highs and lows, and that's a big reason of why we had this wild match. Goff had a so-so start. She lost the first six points of the match and went down an early break. Potopova was able to push Coco deep behind the baseline a few times with a good pace and then was able to redirect behind her a couple times with that forehand down the line. And Potopova had two break points up 4-2 to have the double break lead to go up 5-2, but Goff saved them both and won four games in a row to take the set. And she stepped up, Coco did, and was much more aggressive, came forward a few times and just weathered the storm because Potopova, again, she can be hot, but then she can also be cold. And Coco was also able to win a majority of the longer rallies, just again getting those airs from Potapova. The second set was utterly bizarre. Goff's level, it pretty much dipped a lot in the second set. She went down a double break, love three. Potopova, meanwhile, wasn't playing all that great or spectacular. A lot of it was just Coco gifting her a lot of airs, and Coco could not hold her serve to save her life. Really, neither woman could at one point. We saw six breaks of serve in a row in the second set. And Potopova served at just 35% first serves in. Coco was better, she had a 57% first serve in rate. Although that number was a little bit low considering how she didn't go for her serve all that much. But Coco won just half of her first serve points, and she won just 20% of her second serve points. And that was a big issue for her in this match because Potopova was just stepping up and attacking on a lot of those golf second serves. And even if they weren't outright return winners, Potapova set herself up to be in control core position wise in the rallies thereafter. And whenever she got a short ball, Potapovo, Coco had to watch out, especially whenever the ball came short on the Pottipova backhand. Because that down-the-line backhand of hers was killer today. And this match looked all the making of a three-set battle when Potapova got up to a 5-2 lead in the second set and had two-set points. But Coco, again, she fights like no other. And once she escaped that 5-2 game, her level got better and better. And her weight transfer on her ground strokes was much better. She imposed herself even more in this match. And Potapova started spiraling and was missing more. Golf, she was on a roll. She won 14 of 16 points at one point to come within a game of the match. And she was two points away from the win, being at 30 all in this 6'5 game, but she only won just one single point for the rest of the set at that point on. And that one point came in the tie break where she lost 7-1. You gotta give Potapova credit because she played really, really solid, but still you gotta expect Coco to step up too and be a lot stronger in those crucial moments. Golf did rebound well in the third set. She went up 3-1 a break and she led 15-30 in this game when Potopova was serving. But Anastasia, again, gotta give her her credit because she stepped up, played three really great points in a row to escape the game and hold. And then Golf played a really poor service game at 3-2 to get broken at love. And I think a big difference maker in this match again was that Potpova's backhand was a much bigger weapon than Goff's in this match. She hit 16 winners, Anastasia did from that wing compared to just three for Coco. And she just had more venom from that backhand side, and it actually won her more points. Whereas Goff's backhand was actually more of a liability, like at 3-all, when Coco had a sitter backhand on her first break point at 3-all, but netted it. And maybe she just wasn't feeling as confident behind that shot. But I don't think she went for enough backhand down-the-line shots nearly enough at all in this match. Goff, I actually think went for more on her forehand compared to the backhand a lot of times, especially in the last few games, and overall was just way too passive. I think again, Potapova deserves a lot of credit for being fearless and stepping up. And she was rewarded for going for and being the bolder of the two. And we saw that in the last few games where Coco did have her openings. And the last game itself was bizarre because Coco had a 30-love lead when she tried to serve to stay in the match, but she lost the last four points due to first a Potopova forehand down the line winner, and then Coco committed a double fault, and then she had a poorly timed drop shot, and Potapova took advantage of that, and then on the last point, she shrank the forehand pretty bad. Re-watching the match, like when I was watching it live, I was like, oh my gosh, this match is just a mess. But rewatching it, it wasn't as bad as I initially remembered it. It was actually not bad quality. We saw a number of really entertaining rallies, especially in the third set. I think the third set was the highest quality set out of out of the three. Goff said in her post-match press conference that she felt she lost this match the same way she lost her matches to Spitolina in Rome and Dinoskova in Madrid. As she had her chances in both matches, but she did not play the way that she needed to in the crucial moments. Coco, she fought well, like she said herself and didn't give up, but she just did not have the same courage as her opponents in these losses. And that's the problem in the losses. She waits for her opponents, I feel, to make mistakes. She tries to be the more steady of the two instead of really stepping up and taking her chances and giving her grace. I understand why Coco did that because her opponents in those matches, even Fitolina, they were a bit like you know, hot and cold. Like there were times where they would not miss at all, and then there were times where they would spray. So I I think Coco just trying to be a little bit more consistent and out rally them. I understand why she went with that play, but at this point, you gotta learn that hey, these players are not missing, like they're not giving me these easy misses, like how, for example, Eva Yovich did and that tight roam match. She's not gonna be able to rely on her opponents just crumbling, she has to step up and take it. And Padopova did just that, as did Svitilina and as did Noskov in Madrid. She just wasn't bold enough. Goff also said it's pro sports, so I never feel completely comfortable, to be honest, until the match is over. I think that's maybe the issue too. I should keep putting my foot on the gas instead of maybe letting up a little bit, and that's what I think I did. So, a very accurate analysis from Coco. She pretty much said the same thing I did. So it shows that she's aware of the problem, but she needs to correct it moving forward. And these are the type of losses that separate a great player from a generational great player. Coco has won a lot of tight matches, especially in Rome, but the issue is just being a good front runner runner. And in a lot of those matches, she didn't need to make them as complicated as they were. Like they could have been straight sets wins for her. And I just feel like she's overall not as clutch in the tight moments as she could be. And I think some of that could be she doesn't have that one defining shot right now, like her backhand is just not firing. It really hasn't been as sharp as it could have been this entire clay season, and we saw that in this loss. But the serve and Coco's serve has improved, but it's still not that big serve or shot that can get her out of trouble. And I think she really needs that. And Coco, I think she overall has served better this clay season, but as she said herself, it's not conducive to have a more consistent serve if you're not winning a lot of points behind it. So I think she has to get to the point where she's still going for the serves, but also maintains a high first serve percentage. It's a tough balance to strike. But I don't think she found that balance nearly enough in this match. It's been a decent season for Coco, but no title to show for it. She has lost her edge in the big matches, I feel. She's lost her last two finals, and I think she's got to figure it out before it snowballs and she has a notable title draught. But again, I've got to give Potipova her flowers. She was the better player in this match, and again, was more gutsy. And I've always noticed that Pottipova has had the talent, but now she's showing the nerve to get the big wins that she could always, that she always had the potential of getting. And I'm just wondering what has gotten into her this clay season, because it's like she's been a completely different player. Like the fight we've been seeing from her is really something else. Like I noticed she had a lot of fight against Sabalenka in the Australian open third round, but I think the difference is that her fight is translating into wins now. And this is just her second slam round of 16, which is kind of crazy considering her talent, but maybe she can go further. But there's a lot of opportunity now with Goff's exit. We're gonna be guaranteed a first-time slam semifinalist. Paulopova now takes on Anna Kalinskaya, who received a cold handshake from Camila Osorio following her 6'3, love six, six two win over the Colombian. Kalinskaya clearly wasn't pleased with it. She was low-key trying to check her after the handshake. And people they interpreted this as Osorio not being happy about Colin Skya's medical timeout when she was down love four in the second set. Apparently, Colin Skya was feeling unwell, possibly a heat issue going on with her. And there also could have been a previous beef between Anna and Camilla as allegedly Colinskaya accused Osorio of gamesmanship with a medical timeout in one of their previous matches. World number 114, Maya Halinska, has continued her incredible run at Rolling Garrett. She reached her maiden slam round of 16 with a 1-6, 6-3-6-2 comeback victory over Maria Sakri. I picked Halinska before this match because even though she is inexperienced, especially compared to Sakri, she has got some quality wins the tournament, especially over Jung and Mertens beating them in straight sets. Sokri, I also knew that this would be a big mental barrier for her to overcome as she has not reached a slam second week since Australian Open 2022. So that continues. Now, Haliska would not have the crowd support in her fourth round when she takes on Dan Perry. The French woman upset sixth seed, Amanda Annie Samova, 6'4, 4676. This wasn't the biggest shock because Annie Samova was dealing with a left wrist injury heading into the tournament, and this was her first clay tournament of the year, and she didn't really have adequate match reps. Like her opponents didn't really play her into form. She got a pretty one-sided win over Rakatamanga Rajel Naught in round one. And then Julia grabbed her, gave her a retirement win after Anna Samova won the first set six love. So she was coming in with a little bit of questionable form. Plus, she was dealing with numerous adversity, not only the crowd, but she was suffering from blisters. She was also ill on Friday coming into this match. So it was it was a lot, and it was a very error-prone performance from Anna Samova, especially in the tie break where she lost seven points in a row from three all. Now, the top part of the women's draw features three slam champions and Diana Schneider. Schneider reached her second slam round of 16 after earning a 7-5-6-1 win over Aleksandra Onlininkova. There was a little bit of tension, a tension cloud over this match. Oleksandra was outspoken against Schneider for playing a gosprom sponsored exhibition in Russia last year. Alexandra also pointed out that Schneider liked some pro-Putin posts on Instagram. And after the match, Schneider said that she had no idea about Olininkova's comments in the press and that she played the exhibition because it was her one opportunity to play at home in front of her family. Up next for Deanna is Madison Keys, who is the only American woman remaining in the field. And I honestly wouldn't have guessed this because I thought Keys might not even play this tournament due to a thigh injury that she had coming into it. But she earned a top two turvy 6'3, 5'7, 7'5 victory over Victoria Mboko. This easily could have been a 6'3, 6'1 win for Maddie. She was up a set in 3 love and had two break points for a double break for love lead here. Still, she led 4-1 in the second set and had two match points at 5-4. But credit to Mboko for battling hard and at least forcing the third set. Now the big marquee matchup, of course, is between the four-time major champions, Arena Sabulenka, and Naomi Osaka. Sabulenka notched her eighth win over Daria Kazakina, winning six love seven five. It was a solid performance from the world number one who finished with 37 winners, 27 unforced heirs. Meanwhile, Naomi reached her first Roland Garros round of 16 in her first non-hard court slam second week, for that matter in general, after coming out on top of Eva Yovic and a 7-6-6-7-6-4 battle. This is gonna go down as one of the best women's matches of the tournament. The level from both Naomi and Eva was really sky high. And Yovich impressed me a lot. And I should have known from her little run in Rome that she has the potential to do a lot on red clay, even, but this match only confirmed it. And I think it's only a matter before she cracks top 10. And Naomi won just four more points than Eva, but my prediction here came true in that Naomi's power in serve was just the difference maker. And Osaka hit 12 aces and got a lot of unreturnable serves as well, and she hit 46 winners to Eva's 28 winners. Osaka also hit more on forced airs than Jovich, but she was the more steady and the late moments in the third set, and that ultimately got her over the finish line. I have been really impressed with the Naomi this entire clay season, and Osaka, I think, has been playing at her same 2010, late 2010s, early 2020s slam winning form. I think she's playing in that same level. She has yet to reach a quarter final though this year. And the question is, can she break that spell next against Salanka? This will be the third time this year that they've played. All their meetings have been in the round of 16 at tournaments. Salanka won their Indian Wells affair 6'2, 6'4. And in that match, Sal Blanca was just flawless. Osaka serve also wasn't that great. And in Madrid, the match was much more competitive. Salanka also won that one, but with a score of 6'7, 6'3, 6'2. A really high quality match. Osaka served phenomenal. And she led by a set and a break, but Sal Blanca had more Moxie. And Naomi, I think, also faded away towards the end of the match. I think if Naomi continues playing like how she has been this tournament, she has a great shot. I think she's been serving better than Sal Blanca has so far, and that again can be a big difference maker, especially if it gets down to the wire. Salanka also has not faced a big hitter like Naomi this tournament so far. Osaka, meanwhile, has faced Vecich and Yovich, even though she's not really a big, big hitter. The American hits with some good pace and depth on her ground strokes. I also think Osaka's a bit more battle-tested than Sabalenka. And I think this win against Jovic is huge. And I feel like that could be a win we look back on as part of a notable run here in this tournament. I low-key Kency and Naomi go all the way to the finals. This is going to be one of the most important pivotal matches of the tournament. Dare I say, a US Open 2018 part two, where they also met in the fourth round, and the winner of that one, Naomi, went on to win the entire tournament. Sabalinka, though, has just been the better player in the big matches. She's reached the quarterfinals or better at each slam plate since Roland Garrett's 2022. That said, I feel like she just has not been as sharp as she maybe needs to be this tournament. She's not gonna be, I think, as confident with her somewhat subpar results on clay this year, and she's lost a couple of really tight three-set matches and tie breaks too. So I think she has lost her edge in that regard, and that could help Naomi even more. I might do Naomi in three. We'll see how that goes. Now looking at the men's side, we didn't really see any shocking upsets, but we did have a whole lot of wild five-set matches, namely in the topmost part of the of the men's draw. Juan Manuel Sorundolo and Mateo Berrini will face off in the round of 16 after both men secured the two longest wins of the tournament so far and five-set tie breaks. Berettini battle pass Argentina's Francisco Comisania 765767647676 in five hours and 13 minutes. Really dramatic scenes in this match. The 10-point tie break was epic. It ended up being 15-13 in Bettettini's favor. And both men had multiple match points. The tension was at an all-time high, and it wasn't the best tennis quality-wise, but drama-wise, it was out of 10 because you could just see the tension and how much both guys wanted this match. And I hate that one person had to lose, but I do feel happy that Mateo won because he you can see he got emotional, and it was his first slam round of 16 and quite some time since Wonwood in 2023. And it was his first time playing Roland Garros since 2021, as he's endured countless injury issues the past few years. So again, great to see him back at the stage winning big matches. And Mateo actually remains the only former slam finalist in this top half. Verettina Comissano was the longest match of the tournament, but then like an hour or so later, or two hours later, Juan Manuel Sarondalo and Martin Lendeluthé surpassed that by nearly 40 minutes. When the former won 6'4, 6'7, 75, 6'7, 7, 6, 10. Nearly six hours on a tennis court is insane. You know what I can do in six hours? Like, that's a whole like that's that's crazy. But big props to Sarundalo for both guys, but specifically Sarundalo for backing up that center win. Also to Lendeluth, because I think he had a couple of five set matches coming into this match. So both guys deserve their flowers for this one. Sorundalo is the only Argentine to reach the second week, as his elder brother, Francisco, was a favorite to go deep and even make the finals, but he fell in five sets to 23-year-old American Zach Sfida with a score of 6-3-64-364663. This was a bit surprising, but Sorundalo tends to make like Tommy Paul and not live up to expectations. But I am so happy for Sfaida. His father passed away from colon cancer last October, and he's been playing his best tender since really, I think, in his dad's honor. And today was extra special because it would have been his dad's birthday. So I just love to see heartwarming stories like this. Up next for Zach is 10th seed Flavio Caboli, who is the lone man remaining in the tournament to have yet to drop a set. He dominated Learner Tien 2, 2, and 3. I picked Caboli to win this match and to win the section, but not expecting, was not expecting that much of a straightforward match. Considering his clay prowess and again him being the freshest out of all the guys really remaining, Flavio should make the finals. Francis Tialfo joins Fida as the only two remaining American men in the tournament. He earned a 4-6-6-7-7-6-6-1-6-2 comeback win over qualifier Jaime Faria. Faria was outplaying Tiafo for a majority of the match, and he even led by a break 4-3 in the third set to come within two games of a straight sets win. But after Tiafo took that lengthy game to break, despite Faria having game points, the entire match turned around, and the experience gap between the two showed. Faria began losing focus and started to unravel, while Tiafo got stronger and stronger as the match went on. And there was a bit of a testy moment between the two at 2-1 in the fifth set. Tiafo questioned a tight line call and complained a little bit to the cherrium. And I guess Faria didn't like that. And it was hard to make out what the guy said at some parts, but you could hear Francis say, Don't act like you're tough. You're not hard, bro. Just play. Faria then said, You're being disrespectful. And the cherumpire said, You were as well. And forget what Daniel Vallejo was saying. Female cherumpires can handle business, they can handle their own. They're clearly strong enough to do their jobs. But the incident ended up helping Francis more, and he admitted that too after the match, speaking with reporters. But again, huge effort from Tiafa to get this win. I thought he was down and out. But y'all can rag on Tiafa all you want. You cannot deny the guy's gonna fight. And this is another big five set win after getting by Hubert Herkosh the previous round, and that was his longest match of his career. So I don't know what's in the water, but how are these guys producing these back to back to back five set wins like this? It's on another level. But up next for Tiafo is Italian Matteo Onaldi, who Eliminated Rafael Colino in five sets, 10-4 in the deciding tie break. The head-to-head between Tiafa and Arnaldi is one apiece, and Arnaldi won their lone clay meeting in Madrid. Tiafa won their one-widden match in 2024 in five sets. So I'm anticipating a tough one, but I'm gonna have Tiafa move through in five sets. Fourth seed, Felix Oje al-Yassim remains the highest ranked man in the tournament. He got a 5'7, 617, 676 win over Brandon Nakashima. Felix seeks his first Roland Garrett's quarterfinal when he takes on Chile's Alejandro Tbilo, who's making his first slam second week appearance. Tabilo ended Moyes Kwame's breakout run with a very tight 4-6-6-3-6-4-7-6 win. A very impressive match from both guys. And Tabilo got shaky towards the end, but he had just enough experience to get through. And he led 4-2 in the fourth set and had three break points to go up the double break, 5-2 to serve for the match. But Kwame saved them all, and he ended up getting back on serve to force the tie break. And Moyes saved four match points in the breaker. And I thought we might see another insane comeback win. But Tabilo, credit to him for controlling it, especially with the crowd trying to will Moyce to another epic comeback win. But the match, really, to me, even though Moyes lost, this was as impressive as his Vallejo win. Because for him to be able to back up that five-hour match playing this well, almost forcing a fifth set against a veteran quality player like Vallejo, that's that's impressive. And it's gonna be tough for Moyes to maintain this form, I think, after Rolline Garrett's because he won't have the French crowd. But this is just the beginning for him. We will see him back at this stage many, many times in the future. There's so much opportunity in this top half. It's insane, it's utterly insane. It's so hard to pick who's gonna win. I think I might stick with Kaboli to come through, but Tiafa might do his big one as well. But it's so exciting. Again, I hate to say it, but with Sin Kadaz being out, this has been more enjoyable for me to watch men's tennis. I've not been this seeded for a men's tennis slam ever. Now, looking ahead at day eight order of play, the biggest marquee matchup to me, at least on the woman's side, opens play with Igosh Fiantech taking on Marta Kostiak. Followed by that is Berlin de Bencic against Alina Svitalina, then Zverev against Dajong, and then the night session will be between Caspar Root and Joao Fonteca. Speaking of night session, I think Sablenka Osaka deserves the night session for day nine, but we know that's not gonna happen, probably, unfortunately. Now, of course, Suzanne Longwin, we have Sorana Cristella taking on Shi Yu Wong. Then there's an all-Spaniard affair between Hodar and Pablo Kranya Busta. Mira Andreva seeks her third straight Rolling Girls quarterfinal, taking on Joe Tykman, and then Andre Rublev faces off against Jakob Menjik. That's all I have for this day. Seven Rolling Girls recap. Let me know your thoughts on all the results, namely Coco's loss. Plus, what do you think she needs to work on moving forward in her game and in her mind, I guess, as well as who do you think will come through in the fourth round matches, namely Savalenko Osaka, but also in the men's top half too. Again, make sure you subscribe and click the notification bell so you're notified whenever I post my day eight recap video. Thank you all so much for watching and for your support. And I will see you all next time here on Christian's Court.