Coco Gauff Laughs Off Italian Open Loss on Instagram

On Saturday afternoon, Elina Svitolina defeated Coco Gauff in the Italian Open (Internazionali BNL d'Italia) women's singles final: 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-2. Svitolina's resurgent season continues with her first WTA Masters 1000 title since winning the same event in 2018.

Meanwhile, it was Gauff's first loss of her clay court campaign. Clearly, she was still processing the defeat during the on-court ceremony. The first question of her interview caught her off guard, causing her to laugh and lighten the mood inside Stadio Centrale.

Gauff quickly regained her composure, gave a gracious speech, and posed for pictures. Once she completed all of her obligations after the match, Gauff laughed off the loss with self-deprecating humor on her Instagram story.

Coco Gauff's On-Court Ceremony Thoughts

Coco Gauff's Instagram story post. — Coco Gauff joked about her loss on Instagram. | @cocogauff

Gauff's first Instagram story post was a humorous list of her top five horror movie ideas:

Top 5 Horror Movies
1. Sitting through a trophy ceremony after you lose.
2. Talking after you lose.
3. Smiling with your finalist trophy.
4. Sitting through trophy ceremony when you lose.
5. Ceremony after you lose.

"Also, before the think pieces come... this is a joke, and I'm smiling while writing this," Gauff added. "Thought it would be funny. Not meant to be taken seriously, lol, before the people with no humor get mad."

Coco Gauff Replaying Mistakes

A picture of Gauff hugging her trophy tight while watching Svitolina's speech quickly became a meme on Tennis Twitter. While Gauff is off Twitter, she used the picture on her Instagram story with the caption:

"Me disassociating, replaying all of my mistakes in my head and trying not to crash out during the ceremony." After that post, Gauff stopped kidding around and offered a since message.

Coco Gauff's Optimistic Message

Gauff shared a selfie of herself using the finalist trophy as a mirror. "On a real note, though, was a fun two weeks, proud of myself, learned a lot, ready for Paris now," said Gauff.

After today's loss, Gauff is the WTA World No. 4 with a singles record of 24-9 with zero titles. Later this month, the American star must defend 2,000 ranking points at the French Open. Svitolina is the World No. 10 with a record of 28-7 with two titles. The Ukrainian star kicked off the year by winning the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, and has enjoyed an incredibly strong season.

The Italian Open will conclude on the men's side tomorrow with a final showdown between Jannik Sinner and Casper Ruud. After that, clay court court season continues into the French Open later this month. Stay locked into Sports Illustrated's Serve On SI for all of your tennis news from the court and beyond.

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