![\"tennis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Pro-Player-Gear-610X150-03.jpg\")
<\/a>tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\nReigning Roland Garros champion Gauff joked despite her dirt success, her current clay connection feels like a bad romance.<\/p>\n
\u201cClay is like the good guy that treats you nice\u2014the chemistry is just not there,\u201d Gauff told Tennis Channel\u2019s Prakash Amritraj afterward. \u201cAnd that\u2019s how I feel today.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I have a lot of icks with the clay, my socks get dirty, I\u2019m always falling. I have a little cut from today. It\u2019s never completely like true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though only two of her 11 career championships have come on clay, two-time Grand Slam champion Gauff is coming off a superb 2025 clay campaign that saw her reach finals in Madrid and Rome before battling by world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the Roland Garros final.<\/p>\n
When it comes to deepening her bond with dirt, Gauff said clay is simply too flaky to count on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHard [court] you know what you\u2019re gonna get,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cClay, you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re gonna get, which makes it fun and entertaining sometimes. [But] sometimes I\u00a0 just need stability in my life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oddly enough, the instability of the dirt brings out the best in Gauff who can be calm in the eye of the clay storm.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the first French Open final between the world\u2019s top two women in 12 years last June, then No. 2\u00a0 Gauff was simply too tough for No. 1 Sabalenka at crunch time.<\/p>\n
\u00a0A committed Gauff combated Sabalenka\u2019s fierce power and unruly whipping wind with pure poise pulling off a 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4 comeback to capture her maiden Roland Garros championship in a thriller.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dirt rewards some of Gauff\u2019s greatest strengths.<\/p>\n
The fastest player in the sport has more time to defend on dirt. Gauff extended points to maddening lengths toppling Sabalanka in that Roland Garros final. On clay, the disparity between Gauff\u2019s flat forcing backhand and her twisting topspin forehand can be even more jarring for opponents and she can apply her athleticism, speed and stamina more effectively in extending clay-court exchanges.<\/p>\n
Gauff, who will face 25th-seeded Sorana Cirstea in Madrid next, said trust is key to making her ongoing relationship with red clay work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it just forces you to trust your shots more and also know like let the conditions work for you,\u201d Gauff said. \u201cSometimes, you think you have to play amazing, which you do sometimes, but really conditions can work a lot for you.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hit a lot of balls today which I thought weren\u2019t the best, but the altitude can really make them bounce. That\u2019s just something I learned over the years playing this tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, April 24, 2026Photo credit: Mutua Madrid Open Facebook A candid Coco Gauff shared…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168779,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-605609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}