Coco Gauff’s Indian Wells Open campaign came to an unfortunate end in the third round against Alex Eala as she retired due to an arm injury and afterwards she explained what went wrong.
Reigning French Open champion Gauff made a good start as she broke Eala in the opening game of the match, but from the second game onwards, she struggled and took a medical timeout while 2-5 down.
Eala then broke in game eight to take the opening set and won the two opening games of the second set before the American – who defeated the Filipina in straight sets in their last event at the Dubai Tennis Championships – threw in the towel with the score 2-6, 0-2.
During her post-match press conference, she was asked about the injury.
Q: Coco, obviously a disappointing way to finish at Indian Wells. Just talk us through the injury a little bit, what you felt, if it happened during the match. Just as much detail as possible, please.
COCO GAUFF: “I felt it, like, the second game of the first set. I guess 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, being told that it’s probably something nerve-related. Never had anything like this before, never felt anything, a sensation like this before.
“And then 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.
“It was feeling like fireworks at times. Yeah, it was a scary feeling, but yeah, I don’t know.”
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Q: Was it a particular shot that you hit when it happened?
COCO GAUFF: “I believe it was a forehand, and then, yeah, it just got worse and worse. And then I tried, but because it didn’t feel like a muscle or a bone thing, I think it felt like my arm was on fire.
“I didn’t feel comfortable to continue, because usually with those type of pains, I kind of know what to expect, but I’ve never had, like, nerve pains before.
“Again, we’re going to see tomorrow what it is, but I’m assuming it’s that.”
Q: Obviously you’re not someone that ever really retires in matches, and so obviously this is something you’re taking quite seriously. Is your plan to try and ice it and treat it, get some scans tomorrow?
COCO GAUFF: “We’re going tomorrow to get an MRI and to see what’s going on. 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.”
Q: Obviously you and Alex are quite friendly on tour, you play doubles and things like that together. Did she say anything to you at the net or after the match? I know she looked quite concerned for you after the match.
COCO GAUFF: “No, she just told me I hope I feel better and things like that. I felt really bad to pull out, you never want to pull out, but more so for her because she was playing great tennis, and I don’t want to take anything away from the way that she was playing.
“I’d rather finish the match and lose 6-0, but at that point I just felt that because the pain was getting worse and I didn’t know what was going on, I just felt it was better to stop. But I think she’s going to have a great tournament.”
