I Am Tired of This Nonsense and Can’t Control How I Play: Gauff Admits to Ongoing Changes in Her Game as She Plans to…
Yulia Starodubtseva may have a mouthful of a surname, but her tennis isn’t lacking either. She’s been in decent form lately, getting ever closer to the Top 100, and in her quarter-final match at the WTA 1000 event, she played like a player who belongs there. In fact, she will break into the Top 100 after the event.
Gauff helped her greatly in getting there as she struggled immensely with her serve. She served horribly in the first set of that match. It’s not an exaggeration to say it was shockingly bad, but she stabilized a little as time passed.
That was crucial in turning around the match, as well as her resilient mentality, which Gauff has shown for much of her career. She’s always been a fighter and has won matches she shouldn’t have.
Some would argue that this is what has allowed her to achieve the level of success she’s had so far. Her athleticism and resilience have been impressive, even when her tennis tends to falter.
After the match, she admitted that reminding herself to stick with it helped her turn the match around. Having the right mindset was crucial, as she battled back to a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 victory.
“I was just trying to remember what we’ve been working on on the practice court. It’s still a lot of things I’m adjusting to, so for me, it’s about trusting the process and focusing on that. Today, I can’t control how I play or how she plays, but I can just try to control my mindset and commit to the process.”
Despite reaching the semi-final in Beijing, it was a very odd time for Gauff because she was coming off a terrible sequence in her native United States, where she was greatly disappointed with her play.
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This resulted in her making some changes to her approach. She let go of her coach, Brad Gilbert, and hired a new one, Matt Daly, before this event. She also started working on her serve after struggling with it during the US Open.
The struggles in China might be attributed to her working on the serve, causing the mechanics to be off at times. There’s just a lot happening for the American, and it’s all with the goal of becoming a better player.
Many analysts have called for this, and even she understood that it had to be done. She was trending in the wrong direction in recent weeks, and stopping that was crucial. She admitted before the China Open that her goals for the rest of the season are mostly to prepare for next year.
This is an early pre-season for her, as she called it, the only difference is that it features the best possible practice—live matches. The 20-year-old explained that she’s not necessarily chasing trophies as her goal but is trying her best to become the best player possible.
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Jannik Sinner faced Carlos Alcaraz in the 2024 China Open final, and after losing, the Italian wasn’t in the mood to dissect the match.
It was a fabulous tennis match that went over three hours and featured some of the best tennis we’ve seen from both players in recent weeks. Alcaraz is back to his former self, finding a good level in recent weeks, which culminated in his performance in the final of the ATP 500 event in Beijing and the trophy.
He didn’t play his absolute best, but when it really mattered, in the final-set tie-break, Alcaraz played some superb tennis to win the match. Sinner was very close to winning the match, coming two points away from that, but still, he couldn’t close it out despite having a 3-0 lead in the tie-break.
Both of them had some issues playing with a lead, as both lost big leads that they shouldn’t have. Alcaraz was up by a break in the opening set and served for it, but then he got broken and lost that set in a tie-break, in which he also had a lead.
Sinner had chances in the second set but failed to convert them. Alcaraz then won the second set and even jumped out to an early lead in the final one. He had a chance to go up a double break but failed to use that, and then his Italian rival broke back and came two points from winning the match at 6-5.
He opened the tie-break with two mini-breaks, leading 3-0, and hit a wonderful serve that barely touched the net, but it did. It was a let, and if it wasn’t and Sinner took the 4-0 lead, who knows what might have happened in the match.
He was asked about that final-set tie-break and he referenced that serve but ultimately dismissed dissecting individual points like that.
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“It can happen. Was up 3-0. I served very good. Touched the net, the first ball. If I go 4-0, it already a bit different. It’s unnecessary to talk about certain points. I felt like he played great point also on 3-0 and 3-1, then he served very well on 3-2. The margins are very small.”
“In the tiebreaks, the small margins, they seem very big. That’s it. You have to accept it. You have to keep working on a couple of things. I won many tiebreaks in the last period of time. This one, it went away. That’s it, no? It’s all good.”
It was a match of margins, and both looked like the better player at times in this match. Ultimately, when it mattered the most to the outcome of the match, it was Alcaraz who was able to exploit those margins and win.
Sinner also generally didn’t have the sharpest week in Beijing. In most of his matches, the Italian struggled more than it was expected. In fact, the final was his best match; it just didn’t prove enough.
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