US Open star Coco Gauff shares sympathy with Ostapenko as scheduling row erupts
Coco Gauff appeared to have sympathy for Jelena Ostapenko after the world No 21 voiced her frustration over the scheduling of their match. The Latvian finished playing shortly before midnight on Sunday and was back at 12pm on Tuesday to face Gauff, losing 6-0 6-2.
After suffering a one-sided defeat to the sixth seed, Ostapenko claimed that US Open organisers told her she would be playing in the night session for her quarter-final. The 26-year-old said the communication came after she upset world No 1 Iga Swiatek on Sunday night, though tournament bosses allegedly went back on their word.
“When I saw the schedule I was a little bit surprised, not in a really good way,” the 2017 French Open champion said. And Gauff has now shown her sympathy for her opponent after dealing with similar scheduling difficulties.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely a valid thing,” the 19-year-old started. “I remember in Montreal I had to play Marketa [Vondrousova], and we finished around 11:00 and then played the next day at like 1:00 or 2:00. Luckily the match before us went long but I still am at the site and everything.”
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While players at Grand Slams benefit from a day in between matches, Gauff knew that often wasn’t enough. She continued: “I do think with a day in between it does help a little bit. But also, I mean, I don’t know, the Grand Slam tournaments are tough. She had to play the second night match. I don’t know what time she practiced the next day, but it’s definitely a different feeling.
“I mean, I had doubles yesterday, and I have doubles tomorrow. So I get the feeling in the way of playing back to back to back. Yeah, honestly, yesterday was a concern of mine when I found I was playing first, hoping that, you know, it was unfortunate Jess lost, but she lost fast, and then obviously they put us on Ashe so we didn’t have to worry about the rain or anything.”
Ostapenko had also explained that she didn’t feel tired physically but that she wasn’t given enough time to recover. And Gauff understood that the schedule would take a mental toll.
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“Yeah, it definitely plays a factor, maybe more so mentally than physically, because I think physically you have the day in between but mentally these days go by so fast. I definitely can understand that point of view, for sure,” she added.
Temperatures also reached around 35 degrees on Arthur Ashe Stadium court on Tuesday, though Gauff wasn’t sure whether the heat played too much of a part in the 68-minute match.
“I don’t know if the heat really played a factor or not, because the match was, you know, short. I do think if it was a longer match, I think it would have favored me even more. But yeah, I definitely could tell that she was a little bit frustrated with her performance today,” she said.
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