‘Winning Ugly: Mental Warfare in Tennis’ is a bestselling book published by Brad Gilbert, the coach of No.4 seed Coco Gauff.
It’s exactly what his charge did to survive a rollercoaster 7-6(6) 6-7(3) 6-2 battle against Marta Kostyuk, propelling herself into the last four at Melbourne Park for the first time.
MORE: All the scores from Australian Open 2024
“Today was definitely a C game,” Gauff said, grading her performance. “Didn't play my best tennis, but really proud that I was able to get through.”
“Problem solving is tennis,” said the 19-year-old. “Today was frustrating, because I knew how I needed to play, I just couldn't execute. Eventually I was able to find it, which is what I'm proud of,” she added.
“Mentally I'm one of the strongest out there, and I try my best to reset after each point," the world No.4 said. Gauff is on a 10-0 unbeaten streak in 2024 after successfully defending her ASB Classic title in Auckland earlier this month.
In warm conditions at Rod Laver Arena, watched by thousands including Rod Laver himself, Gauff took 3 hours and 8 minutes to earn victory, setting a record for her longest Grand Slam match.
“Marta’s a tough opponent, every time we play it’s a tough match,” she said after stretching her record against Kostyuk to 2-0. “[I’m] happy, really proud of the fight that I showed today…I really fought and left it all on the court today.”
Despite struggling on serve and with her forehand, Gauff saved two set points as she clawed her way back from a 1-5 deficit in the opening set to close it out in a tiebreak.
“I was playing not great…just missing everything on both wings and not serving well,” she said. “I was just trying to get one more game in the first set and at least make it competitive,” she added. “I believe every point, every game matters, and eventually the score started to get closer.”
Gauff served for the match at 5-3 in the second, but was foiled as her determined opponent slammed a pair of backhand winners en route to recapturing the break. Kostyuk broke Gauff for the seventh time as she served for the match at 5-0 in the third, but couldn’t repeat the feat when the American stepped up to close it out at 5-2.
“In the second…[I] got a little bit passive. When I came out in the third, I was just trying to play aggressive, and hit through the court because I knew if I left something standing, she was going to take advantage,” she said.
Gauff produced 17 winners to Kostyuk’s 39 and amassed 51 unforced errors, triple the average through her first four AO 2024 matches. Gauff served nine double faults and won just 59 per cent of first serve points, a steep decline from her average of 79 per cent during her first four performances at AO 2024.
“I think she's an incredible mover, so it's like you really need to work for every point to win it,” said Kostyuk, crediting Gauff’s backhand and net coverage.
“You really need to pick which shot you're going to play, because it has to be sharp and it has to be different,” added the ‘21-year-old.
Gauff is competing at AO 2024 in tennis shoes with meaningful inscriptions. First, her brothers’ names; second, a message her father has repeated since her youth: “You can change the world with your racquet”; and third, the co-ordinates of public courts she grew up playing on at Pompey Park in Delray Beach, Florida where temperatures can eclipse the hottest Melbourne summer days.
By defeating the Ukrainian world No.37, she's within two wins of becoming the first player since Naomi Osaka to win the US Open-AO double.
She's also the youngest player to reach an AO women’s singles semifinal since Nicole Vaidisova in 2007 and the youngest US player to reach the final four in Melbourne since Mary Joe Fernandez in 1991.
The 19-year-old has been going to movies and playing cards with her parents during her down time in Melbourne but is contemplating picking up Gilbert’s ‘Winning Ugly’.
“My mum actually got it for me when we were in talks of just possibly working with Brad, she was like ‘You need to read this.’ She read it and I didn’t read it,” Gauff said with a grin.