Coco Gauff retired from her third round match at the BNP Paribas Open against Alexandra Eala at 6-2 2-0. The fourth seed had gotten a medical timeout for a tour physio to work on her left arm and do some quick on-court diagnostics. Gauff attempted to play a bit more but was visibly struggling. The two young players shared a few words at the net before the Filipino cheered the American walking off court.
Following the early exit, Gauff did not stay to meet with press, but graciously met with tour communication staff to put out a transcript discussing what happened. The 21-year-old, who celebrates her birthday next week, described the feeling as scary and said:
“A simple way to put it, it felt like a firework was going off inside of my arm and then my whole arm felt like it was on fire. We’re going to figure out what it is tomorrow, but based off the feeling, I’m being told that it’s probably something nerve-related. Never had anything like this before, never felt a sensation like this before. As the match played, it got progressively worse, even when I wasn’t using my arm on shots that I wasn’t even using my left arm for.”
The top-ranked American will get an MRI tomorrow, but based on her immediate diagnostics leaving the court, she reassures fans: “Good news is they don’t think it’s going to be like a long-term type of situation, so I should be fine for Miami. Yeah, we’ve just got to figure out exactly what it is and, I guess, how to prevent it in the future.”
Speaking with press after the match, the victorious 31-ranked expressed nothing but respect for her injured opponent: “I think my focus was a big point of my match today and my strategy, as well as the intensity in my legs and the intensity I was able to produce to be aggressive.”
Gauff had won their only previous match, played in Dubai this year 6-0 6-2. Eala prepared for the the rematch to be a battle: “I tried to do things differently, better on certain things I can control. I know that Coco is a great player, and you know she’s really going to give you a hard time. There’s nothing much you can do about the other person playing well, so I tried to focus on what I could control.”
Amanda Anisimova is through to the fourth round at the BNP Paribas Open with a 6-1 6-1 victory over Emma Raducanu. While the sixth seed beating the 25th should not come as a surprise, it is a bit of a breakthrough for the American who only reached this stage of the tournament once before, in 2018. In the five times that the 24-year old has played in Indian Wells since, she reached the third round once and lost in the second the other four times.
The two-time slam finalist credits her recent success to a mental shift: “I try and focus on and really commit to what I’m doing. I think that’s been the biggest shift for me. Hopefully I can try to keep that going. I think that’s a big thing for myself and just trusting myself.”
Anisimova will look to continue her run in the next round Tuesday, while fans wait for news on Gauff’s MRI results.