Photo credit: Antoine Couvercelle/ROLEX
Grand Slam stress took Anastasia Potapova to painful places in the past.
Two points from defeat in the second set today, Potapova was in no mood for more major scar tissue.
A defiant Potapova roared back from 1-3 down in the decider, roaring through five of the last six games to dethrone defending champion Coco Gauff 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-4 in the Roland Garros third round today.
A wildly unpredictable Roland Garros rolls on.
A day after Grand Slam king Novak Djokovic lost a two-set lead in a Grand Slam for just the second time in his storied career bowing to a fierce Joao Fonseca, Gauff let her lead slip and squandered a 30-Love advantage dropping four points in a row and her crown in the process.
It is the earliest exit by a reigning Roland Garros women’s champion since Barbora Krjecikova bit the dust in the 2022 opening round. It’s the first time in five years Gauff has lost in Paris to a player not named Iga Swiatek.
A gutted Gauf saw her nine-match Paris winning streak snapped, suffering her earliest exit at the French Open since her 2020 debut.
Contesting her 25th major, Potapova will play 22nd-seeded Anna Kalinskaya with a trip to her maiden major quarterfinal on the line.
Court Philippe Chatrier was a doom domicile for American women today.
US Open and Wimbledon finalist Amanda Anisimova lost to 92nd-ranked Frenchwoman Diane Parry 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(3) in a draining two hour, 44-minute duel that preceded Potapova’s upset of Gauff.
Though the Gauff serve is often under the microscope after a major loss—she hit only three double faults today though one game in the final game—her backhand betrayed her at times today.
Credit Potapova for frequently standing toe-to-toe with Gauff in backhand exchanges—and winning many of those rallies. Facing one of the premier backhands in the game, Potapova pounded 19 backhand winners compared to one for Gauff, who showed some reluctance to step in and bang her backhand with vigor when things got tight. In fact, deadlocked at 30-all in the last game, Gauff tried to feather a backhand drop shot rather than blast her backhand and paid the price as Potapova easily ran it down and ripped off a winner.
Embed from Getty ImagesThough this result is not a shocker given Potapova had split four prior meetings with Gauff and took the court tied with Marta Kostyuk for most clay-court wins this year, it is surprising how Gauff’s title defense ultimately unraveled.
The fourth-seeded Gauff was two points from victory holding a 6-4, 6-5 lead on Potapova’s serve at 30-all.
A fearless Potapova pounded a backhand winner down the line hammering out a pressure-packed hold to force the tiebreaker. Drawing errors from Gauff’s typically strong two-hander, Potapova breezed through the breaker to level the match and force a final set ratcheting up the pressure on the defending champion.
The feisty Potapova began this year’s clay court season at Linz ranked No. 97. Scoring her ninth career Top 10 win to reach the French Open fourth round for the second time propels Potapova to No. 26 in the WTA Live Rankings.
The 25-year-old Potapova, who was born in Russia but became an Austrian citizen in the offseason and now represents Austria, is the second woman to knock off the reigning champion in the third round after Maria Kirilenko, who stunned Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 2010 third round.