Arnaud Clement labelled Coco Gauff’s performance in her Australian Open quarter-final win over Marta Kostyuk as “extremely poor” and claimed the American “did nothing the entire game.”
The former world No 10 declared he had “rarely commented on a match of this quality at this stage of the competition” and asserted there must be a “very big reaction” from Gauff in the semi-finals.
Gauff defeated world No 37 Kostyuk 7-6(8), 6-7(3), 6-2 in the last eight of the 2024 Australian Open on Tuesday in a battle lasting three hours and seven minutes.
The world No 4 trailed 1-5 in the opening set but improbably survived two set points and Kostyuk serving for the set twice to take it in a tiebreak.
The 19-year-old American then lost the second set in a tiebreak after being broken when serving for the match at 5-3, but sealed victory with a convincing final set. She is through to the last four at the Melbourne Grand Slam for the first time.
The 2023 US Open champion hit 17 winners and made 51 unforced errors, while her 21-year-old Ukrainian opponent landed 39 winners to 56 unforced errors.
Speaking on Eurosport, Clement expressed that he was unconvinced by Gauff’s display and argued she would lose easily in the semi-finals if her level does not increase significantly.
“It was really very surprising. We are not going to put the two players in the same bag. Kostyuk took a lot of risks, she had success, she made a lot of unforced errors. Opposite, Coco Gauff did nothing the entire game,” the 2001 Australian Open finalist assessed.
“She could have lost this meeting. And just when we tell ourselves that it’s okay, that she’s back from 1–5 to the first, that she’s going to relax, she tenses up again. At no time did she manage to free herself. Tennis-wise, it was extremely poor.
“Frankly, I have rarely commented on a match of this quality at this stage of the competition. We will need a very, very big reaction from Coco Gauff in the next match because if she plays like this, it will be very quick whoever her opponent is.”
Gauff will take on world No 2 and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals. The 19-year-old defeated the 25-year-old Belarusian in three sets in last year’s US Open final.
Coco Gauff has followed up her 2023 US Open title with a run to the semi-final of the 2024 Australian Open.#Tennis #CocoGauff #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/C0ZOcqBeJA
— Tennis365 (@tennis365com) January 23, 2024
I didn’t see any comments about a number 1 player lost to a unseeded player. Speak on why number 1seed is out and why. What you talking about everybody know even Coco knows she didn’t play her game, ha but she still here where is number 1 see explain to us what was her reasons. Never fell when it come to black people u people always want to make shit out of it. knowing all the time you wish she had lost.
When someone is coming up no matter their race they will always have critics it’s inevitable. I hope Coco can appreciate the fact that critics should only serve to propel rather than pull down. The best response Coco can ever have to her critics is to prove everyone of them wrong. To improve so much that they have to eat their words for breakfast lunch and dinner.