Defending French Open champion and fourth seed Coco Gauff was eliminated from the women’s draw after suffering a surprising 4-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4 loss to 28th seed Anastasia Potapova at Roland Garros on Saturday afternoon. Gauff’s loss is the earliest for a defending French Open champion since 2022, when Barbora Krejcikova was sent off in the first round.
The match got off to an unfortunate start for Gauff. She was heartbroken in the first game, which was especially concerning given the service issues that have long been her Achilles heel. But Gauff persevered, clawing back the break and then taking the first set 6-4 and appearing to take control of the match.
Potapova rallied in the second set to take a commanding 5-2 lead, but the match nearly collapsed as Gauff won four games in a row, forcing a tiebreak. But then the tide completely reversed, as Potapova won the tiebreaker 7-1 and stole a decisive third set, with Gauff struggling to hold the ball in the court.
In that third set, Gauff broke early to take a 3-1 lead, but gave it back almost as quickly to put the match back on serve at 3-3. Potapova held serve until she was up 5-4 and needed to hold to put pressure on Gauff’s serve and extend the match. Unfortunately for the American star, her serve-keeping issues reared their ugly heads when Potapova broke at the first opportunity to win the match and hand the Austrian the biggest win of her career.
Gauff’s title defense at Roland Garros ended on a disappointing note, as it further confirmed that improving the consistency of her serve is the biggest hurdle she must overcome. The clay courts at Roland Garros have long been Gauff’s forte, and this third-round loss is her earliest since 2020. It is the first time since 2021 that she has lost to a player other than four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek in Paris.
Potapova reached the fourth round of the French Open for the second time in her career (2024), which is also the deepest she has ever reached at a Grand Slam. There she will face 22nd seed Anna Kalinskaya for a spot in the quarter-finals, which is the lion’s share of a place in the semi-finals.
The 2026 French Open saw a drop in the men’s and women’s seedings, leaving Potapova and Kalinskaya as the only seeded players remaining in this quarter. The other four-round match will be between Maja Chwalinska and Diane Parry. Parry defeated sixth-seeded Amanda Anisimova in three sets (6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (10-3)), another top American player, early Saturday.
With Gauff and Anisimova losing, Madison Keys becomes the only American woman left in the French Open draw, and her dream of winning a second Grand Slam title is still alive.
