Coco Gauff surprised the world when she defeated Venus Williams in 2019. While many remember that to be one of her earlier achievements, she has beaten players in much better positions going forward. One of her other great victories came in the Australian Open in 2020. She beat the then-defending champion Naomi Osaka, and subsequently, she couldn’t believe her own improvement.

While Gauff was elated after her win, her opponent did not have an easy time at all. The Japanese player found it difficult to mentally recover from the loss and shared her experience with the world a few months later.

Coco Gauff was left shocked after comparing her past to her present

In the 2020 Australian Open, Naomi Osaka was playing as the defending champion. She won the tournament in 2019 and looked to defend her reign. However, in her path stood the then 16-year-old Gauff, who had her own mission in her mind. The two played a fantastic battle, but it ended with Gauff as the victor, ousting the player looking to win her third slam.

After the win, Gauff was all smiles. The 16-year-old added another great player to her list and moved on to round four. During the post-match interview, she said, “What is my life like? Oh my gosh. Like last year, no two years ago, I lost the first round in juniors, and now I’m here, and this is crazy.”

Unfortunately, Gauff couldn’t continue her stint at the tournament and saw herself eliminated in round 4. But she went home with a great victory to talk about and looked forward to playing at the same level soon after.

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Naomi Osaka, unlike Coco Gauff, did not take the loss easily. She struggled greatly while coping with it and found herself having a difficult mental period after it.

Naomi Osaka shares her struggle of coping with the loss

A docuseries on Naomi Osaka was created for Netflix, which showed many aspects of her life. It also covered the moments after her loss to Coco Gauff. She couldn’t sleep the following day and decided to clear her head after going out for a walk. While walking, Osaka saw a newspaper that covered her loss with the headline, ‘Gotta get a grip’, which infuriated her.

She realized she had two choices: that is to walk or keep lying on her bed, as she couldn’t sleep at all. For Osaka, coping with the loss was a difficult task. But she managed to do it eventually and won her second US Open title later in the year. Now, as Osaka returns after a year of absence, she will aim to reclaim the trophy in Australia. 

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