Coco Gauff’s Roland Garros campaign came to an end on Saturday evening.
Gauff, who was seeking to defend her Roland Garros title from last year, was defeated by 28th seed Anastasia Potapova in the third round.
Potapova, who recently reached the Madrid Open semi-finals, beat Gauff 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 on Court Philippe Chatrier.
Potapova will play Anna Kalinskaya in the fourth round, while Gauff will live to rue her missed opportunity in the French capital.
However, it is not all doom and gloom for Gauff, as she now has a glorious opportunity heading into the 2026 grass-court swing.
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With Coco Gauff out, the draw feels WIDE open…
Coco Gauff has the opportunity to boost her ranking during the grass-court swing
Coco Gauff is set to fall to world number six after losing 1,870 ranking points at Roland Garros.
As a result, she will want to bounce back quickly.
Last year, Gauff struggled throughout last year’s grass-court swing.
In tennis, with failure comes the opportunity for future success; and this could not be more true in Gauff’s case.
In 2025, Gauff suffered opening-round exits in both of the grass-court events she participated in: the Berlin Open and Wimbledon.
Gauff was defeated by Xinyu Wang in Berlin, and Dayana Yastremska in London.
As a result, Gauff earned only 11 WTA ranking points throughout last year’s grass-court swing.
With so few points to defend this year, Gauff has the opportunity to significantly increase her ranking points total ahead of the North American hard-court swing.
This year, Gauff is set to play the Berlin Open once again, joining the likes of Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina at the event.
Gauff is then expected to travel to London for the Wimbledon Championships.
The 2026 grass-court swing
- Queen’s Club Championships: June 8 to 14
- Libema Open: June 8 to 14
- Berlin Open: June 15 to 21
- Nottingham Open: June 15 to 21
- Bad Homburg Open: June 21 to 27
- Eastbourne Open: June 22 to 27
- Wimbledon: June 29 to July 12
Coco Gauff’s Wimbledon struggles
In 2019, 16-year-old Coco Gauff stunned the Wimbledon crowd by defeating five-time champion Venus Williams.
Gauff went on to reach the fourth round, winning the hearts of tennis fans around the world.
However, since then, Gauff has struggled to perform her best at the event.
Gauff has never advanced past the fourth round in SW19, suffering two first-round exits in six attempts.
Coco Gauff’s Wimbledon record
- 2019: Fourth round [lost to Simona Halep]
- 2020: DNP
- 2021: Fourth round [lost to Angelique Kerber]
- 2022: Third round [lost to Amanda Anisimova]
- 2023: First round [lost to Sofia Kenin]
- 2024: Fourth round [lost to Emma Navarro]
- 2025: First round [lost to Dayana Yastremska]
After losing to Dayana Yastremska in the first round of last year’s event, Gauff cut a tearful figure.
“Yeah, I mean, I’m trying to be positive,” Gauff told reporters during her post-match press conference. “After the match, I definitely was struggling in the locker room. I don’t like losing.
“Yeah, I think for me the main thing I’m sure my team and everyone is going to tell me, You did well at Roland Garros, don’t be so upset, things like that.
“I don’t really like losing. I don’t know, I just feel a little bit disappointed in how I showed up today. I feel like I could have been a little bit better in those tough tiebreaker moments, especially after Roland Garros, where I felt like I learned a lot in those tiebreakers.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously I’m not going to dwell on this too long because I want to do well at US Open. Maybe losing here first round isn’t the worst thing in the world because I have time to reset.
“Yeah, definitely sucks [tearing up].”