Defending French Open champion and No. 4 seed Coco Gauff is out of the women’s draw after a surprising loss to No. 28 seed Anastasia Potapova, 4-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-4 on Saturday afternoon at Roland-Garros. Gauff’s loss is the earliest exit for a defending French Open champion since 2022 when Barbora Krejčíková got sent out in the first round. The match started inauspiciously for Gauff as she was broken at love in the first game, which was particularly concerning given service issues have been her Achilles heel for quite some time. However, Gauff was able to dig in and get that break back and another to take the first set 6-4 and seemingly take control of the match. Potapova rallied in the second set to take a commanding 5-2 lead before nearly falling apart as Gauff ripped off four straight games to ultimately force a tiebreak. However, there the momentum completely flipped with Gauff struggling to keep the ball in the court as Potapova cruised to a 7-1 win in the tiebreak to force a third and decisive set. In that third set, Gauff got an early break to go up 3-1, but gave that back almost as quickly to put the match back on serve at 3-3. It would remain on serve until Potapova took a 5-4 lead, putting the pressure on Gauff’s serve to hold up to extend the match. Unfortunately for the American star, her issues holding serve reared their head as Potapova got the break to win the match in her first opportunity to give the Austrian the biggest win of her career.
COCO GAUFF UPSET AT ROLAND-GARROS 🚨No. 28 Anastasia Potapova takes down the defending champ pic.twitter.com/fto870rgFx
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 30, 2026
