Coco Gauff refused to compare Victoria Mboko to herself and also added that others should not engage in such conversations because it would be "unfair" toward the 18-year-old Canadian.
On Tuesday, the rising Canadian star – who is ranked at No. 85 in the world – registered her biggest win by ousting the top-seeded American 6-1 6-4 in the round-of-16 of the WTA 1000 tournament in Montreal.
From start to finish, it was Mboko who had the upper hand as the 18-year-old impressively converted four of her five break point chances, as well as saved all of Gauff's five break point opportunities.
Before making her maiden WTA 1000 quarterfinal in Montreal, Mboko won five ITF titles earlier this year. The Canadian, who was ranked at No. 333 when the 2025 season, is now guaranteed to improve at least 30 spots on Monday and be ranked inside the top-55 for the first time in her career.
Even before beating Gauff, Mboko drew certain comparisons to the American, who had a rapid start to her career. Those conversations only increased after the 18-year-old's impressive win on Saturday.
Gauff: I don't think it's fair to put that on Mboko
"No, she's a completely different player, completely different person. I've never been one to compare myself to others, whether it be like people comparing me to Serena or Venus, and I don't think it's fair to put that on her as well. Yeah, but I do see someone who is going to have a really bright future, for sure," the 21-year-old American responded when asked if she recognized herself in the Canadian.
Gauff didn't want to compare Mboko to herself but she gladly said what she liked about the Canadian's game.
"I mean, she's very athletic. She's a great ball striker, and she seems pretty positive out there on the court, doesn't get really too negative," the two-time Grand Slam winner explained.
Former three-time Grand Slam champion Lindsay Davenport says it is "unbelievable" that Coco Gauff has been winning matches in Montreal so far this week with her "C-level tennis."
So far, Gauff is two out of two at this year's Canadian Open. But both of her opening two matches were an absolute slugfest. Against Danielle Collins, the top seed sprayed a shocking 23 double faults and 74 unforced errors but still won 7-5 4-6 7-6 (2). In her following match, the two-time Grand Slam winner was down by a set a break – she fired 14 double faults – but somehow still found a way to beat Veronika Kudermetova 4-6 7-5 6-2.
As you could notice, Gauff's serving has been disastrous this week. But the top-seeded American is still alive and set to fight against Victoria Mboko for a place in the Montreal quarterfinal.
Davenport on Gauff's display in Montreal: Unbelievable she wins with her C-level tennis
“It was interesting she kept looking down at her grip when she was serving. It looked like they were trying to make some changes with the serve. She was not comfortable with it yet. It looks like they know it’s a problem and she didn’t have the confidence with it last night. Her toss was all over the place. But she still wins. It’s unbelievable her ability to figure out ways to win when she is playing, honestly, C-level tennis out there. She did a fantastic job managing her emotions," Davenport said on Tennis Channel.
Gauff's serving issues have been a major topic for the past two years. At times, the 21-year-old serves better consistently and that's when she usually does well. However, there are also periods when she simply can't catch any rhythm on her serve and that usually leads to some shock losses.
In Montreal, Gauff twice avoided picking a surprise defeat. It remains to be seen how she plays against Mboko.
By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, July 31, 2025 Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images
The Montreal service line loomed like a fault line and Coco Gauff was blowing herself up.
The top-seeded Gauff coughed up 14 double faults but turned an early implosion into an inspirational ending playing her most dynamic tennis in the final set.
Gauff shook off a seven game spiral, surging back to score a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Veronika Kudermetova to battle into the Montreal round of 16 today.
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Down a set and a break, Roland Garros champion Gauff successfully fought off her own sloppy serving and shotmaker Kudermetova and will face either Canadian wild card Victoria Mboko or Czech Marie Bouzkova for a quarterfinal spot.
“I mean the goal is to survive and advance—we all know it’s not my best but it’s good enough for today,” Gauff said. “Mentally, I’m very proud of myself. There’s obviously parts of my game I’m working on, one of them being the serve…I look forward to the future when I’m feeling my best hopeful it’s a little bit easier.”
Through two rounds, Gauff has clanked an unsightly 37 double faults yet she’s reinforced her reputation for resilience raising her 2025 three-set record to 9-1 today.
The two-time Grand Slam champion has the ability to compartmentalize serve struggles, shirk stretches of shoddy play and fight furiously with the match on the line. The question is: Can Gauff pick up her serving as she progresses, and the competition intensifies? The good news, Gauff said, is she’s finding ways to win with her service game “on a crutch.”
“I mean, there’s positives and there’s negatives,” Gauff told the media in Montreal. “Obviously I am so disappointed in myself when it comes to that part of the game just because I didn’t play D.C. to work on that and made changes to that and doing well in practice and serving really well in practice. Yeah, so I just would like for it to transfer to the match.
“It does give positives that, okay, I’m winning these matches having literally like one part of my game on a crutch. So it’s like if I can stand on both feet, then I can only imagine that it would be a lot more straightforward and a lot more easier for me.”
Gauff committed 23 double faults—nearly a full set of doubles—in her opener vs. Danielle Collins yet still squeezed out a 7-5, 4-6 7-6(2) victory relying on her grit and legs to get it done in two hours, 56 minutes.
The normally feisty Collins’ continuously dropping her Tecnifibre racquet to the court in a show of physical frustration that certainly didn’t help her cause. Gauff kept calm despite the deluge of double faults and dug out a third-set tiebreaker, improving to 11-2 lifetime in third-set tiebreakers.
Today, the world No. 2 jumped out to a 4-1 lead. Soon the double fault ghosts haunted Gauff again. Part of the problem today is Gauff sometimes chased her ball toss and was hitting a hybrid kick-slice serve in the opening set: She wasn’t getting the pronation to bring the kick back down in the court but wasn’t slicing the serve severely enough to control it either.
Three double faults in the ninth game saw Gauff gift the break and a 5-4 lead to Kudermetova. If you’re Gauff—or her coaches—you might just want to hit some hard slice serves right into the body in those moments to sustain the racquet acceleration while getting enough net clearance to bring the ball down into the box.
Kudermetova cracked the wide serve on the deuce side to create space. When Kudermetova cranked an inside-out forehand winner she snatched the opening set exploiting seven double faults from Gauff.
From 1-4 down, Kudermetova tore through seven straight games building a 6-4, 2-0 lead.
Empowered by her run to the Wimbledon doubles championship earlier this month, Kudermetova held a break point to go up 4-1, but Gauff denied it. Gauff spun a forehand down the line followed by a backhand strike down the opposite sideline to hold for 2-3.
Striking her forehand with more conviction, Gauff drilled a diagonal forehand winner to break back and level six games into the second set.
Many players resort to the slice forehand when pushed wide on the stretch to extend the point. At times today, Gauff opted to hit slice forehands on balls right down the middle when she had time to set up and hit her traditional topspin forehand. You wonder why she doesn’t take the short preparation steps, create space between her body and the ball and rip some of those forehands just to get her groove going on that wing.
Deadlocked at 5-all, the second set turned on a series of close calls. Gauff badly botched a forehand sitter from nearly right on top of the net choosing to slice her forehand rather than hit it to face a break point.
Surprising the Russian with the drop shot, Gauff got away with it when Kudermetova caught up to the ball but shoveled her forehand out. Given new life, Gauff hammered a wide ace then jolted her opponent backward with a body serve digging through a tough hold for 6-5.
Knowing Gauff’s backhand is her more stable wing, Kudermetova inexplicably played the American’s backhand wing and paid the price as Gauff gained double set point in the 12th game. Kudermetova saved the first set point, but again challenged the Gauff backhand and netted a high backhand volley.
Playing from behind for most of the set, a gritty Gauff broke to force a final set after one hour, 56 minutes.
You can question Gauff’s serve and her sometime flaky forehand, but she is unquestionably one of the toughest competitors on the WTA Tour. After scraping into a third set, Gauff elevated soaring through eight straight points to open the final set. Gauff slashed a forehand crosscourt winner extending to 3-0. Kudermetova, who was sometimes barking at her husband and coach Sergey Demekhine by then, rapidly ran out of answers.
Reading the Russian’s wide serve on the deuce side, Gauff hit some of her finest forehand returns in that final set. A match that saw Gauff dump 14 double faults ended with Kudermetova hitting her first double fault.
Watching Gauff through the first two rounds of Montreal is a bit like watching a sprinter stack her own lane with hurdles right before the race yet still manage to overcome all obstacles and cross the finish line first.
“My energy level is there. I’m not quite at the point where these matches tire me out physically,” Gauff said of winning successive three-setters. “Yeah, I was training in Florida for three weeks having, like, three-, three-and-a-half-hour practices, plus fitness in 90-degree weather with humidity. So it doesn’t feel as long as it is said, but I would love to get these matches under the two-hour mark, but if that’s what it takes, I’m here to be out here.”
Earlier, Marta Kostyuk rose from a dramatic fall out-dueling Daria Kasatkina 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(4) in a match highlighted by one of the craziest points of the tournament.
Two points into the tiebreaker, Kostyuk slipped and fell behind the baseline, dropped her racquet, picked it up extended the point with a forehand and eventually won the point after climbing off the court.
Kostyuk converted seven of 11 break points and exploited 11 double faults from Kasatkina for her second straight three-set win.
The 24th-seeded Ukranian will face next American McCartney Kessler.
The 28th-seeded Kessler conquered fourth-seeded Mirra Andreeva 7-6(5), 6-4.
"I absolutely regret what I said back then," Aryna Sabalenka said of her controversial comments after losing the Roland Garros final.
By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Photo credit: Julien DeRosa-AFP-Getty
Reality has induced regret in Aryna Sabalenka.
World No. 1 Sabalenka calls her behavior after her Roland Garros final loss to Coco Gauff "completely unprofessional" and shared she wrote a letter to the two-time Grand Slam champion apologizing for her behavior.
The US Open champion said while we all have bad days at work "the difference with me is…I get a lot more hate for what I did."
"I absolutely regret what I said back then," Sabalenka told Eurosport Germany. "You know, we all make mistakes. I’m just a human being who’s still learning in life. "I think we all have those days when we lose control.
"The difference with me is, the world is watching. I get a lot more hate for what I did than other people."
In the first French Open final between the world’s top two women in 12 years, No. 2 Gauff was simply too tough for No. 1 Sabalenka at crunch time.
A resilient Coco Gauff combated Sabalenka’s fierce power with pure poise pulling off a 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4 comeback to capture her maiden Roland Garros championship in a thriller.
Afterward, the world’s best player called it her worst final.
“It was really honestly the worst tennis I've played in the last, I don't know, in the last I don't know how many month,” Sabalenka told the media in Paris afterward. “Conditions were terrible, and she simply was better in these conditions than me.
"I think it was the worst final I ever played.”
Sabalenka, who struggled to cope with whipping winds and an unrelenting Gauff's comprehensive court coverage, took criticism afterward for what some felt were ungracious and classless comments.
The top-seeded Sabalenka committed 70 unforced errors. Sabalenka said at times she felt the tennis universe was playing a cosmic joke on her with Gauff’s running retrievals turning her damaging drives into punch lines.
“I mean, honestly sometimes it felt like she was hitting the ball from the frame,” Sabalenka said. “Somehow magically the ball lands in the court, and you kind of, like, on the back foot.
“It felt like a joke, honestly, like somebody from above was just staying there laughing, like, let's see if you can handle this. And I couldn't today.”
Reflecting on her comments, Sabalenka said she was upset after a physically and emotionally draining defeat and spoke out of frustration.
Since then, Sabalenka said she has apologized to Gauff.
"I was super emotional and not very smart at that press conference," Sabalenka added. "It took me a while to revisit it, to approach it with open eyes, and to understand. I realized a lot about myself. Why did I lose so many finals? I kept getting so emotional.
"So I learned a lot. Above all, one thing: I’m the one who always treats my opponents with great respect - whether I win or lose.
"Without that respect, I wouldn’t be where I am today. So it was a tough but very instructive lesson for me."
Wednesday dawned on a gloomy Paris, prompting French Open organisers to close the roof on Court Philippe-Chatrier for the first quarter-final on Day 11, and, first up, was an all American clash between Australian Open champion Madison Keys and the World No 2, Coco Gauff, to determine the first semi-finalist of the the lower half of the women’s draw.
