BERLIN (AP) — Newly crowned French Open champion Coco Gauff was stunned on her return to action Thursday, losing to Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu 6-3, 6-3 at the Berlin Open.
The second-ranked Gauff, who won at Roland-Garros less than two weeks ago for her second Grand Slam title, amassed 25 unforced errors and seven double faults in her loss to Wang.
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Gauff had a bye to the second round at the grass-court tournament, a warmup for Wimbledon.
Wang, ranked No. 49, said she would have been pleased just with the first set, considering the level of her opponent.
“After I won the first set, I just told myself ‘OK let’s take a minute and enjoy this, I’m playing the French Open champion, and I won the first set,’” she said in her on-court interview.
“No matter how the second and third go, I was like, ‘OK let’s just enjoy it for a second.’ I’m really happy with how I played today. I was serving good and putting a lot of pressure on the return, especially second-serve return.”
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