Meditation and group of key boys for Gauff at Roland-Garros

World number three Coco Gauff hopes meditation and noisy support from a group of young boys will unlock the secret to Roland-Garros success.

The American star reached the round of 16 at Roland Garros for a fourth consecutive year on Friday with a straight sets victory against Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska.

US Open champion Gauff, finalist behind Iga Swiatek in Paris in 2022, experienced a clash strewn with errors on the Philippe Chatrier court 6-2, 6-4.

The 20-year-old American will face unseeded Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto for a place in the quarter-finals.

Gauff led 5-2 in the second set before finally winning on a second match point after a clash where the two players scored 22 break points and combined for 62 unforced errors.

As the third seed and scheduled to meet Swiatek in the final four, Gauff says using meditation techniques helps put his title bid into perspective.

“Sometimes I like to lie on the floor and just meditate, whether it’s literally a minute, two, ten or fifteen,” she said.

“I think it helps to keep your feet on the ground because sometimes in these tournaments the pressure can be high and I think sometimes you just lie there on the ground, and you just think there are billions of people on this earth and billions of people don’t “I don’t even know who you are.

“So the matches are not as important as we sometimes think.”

Gauff has been a crowd pleaser since she burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old at Wimbledon in 2019, where she breezed through qualifying to reach the fourth round, beating former champion Venus Williams along the way .

In Paris, she attracted the attention of an audience of young boys who had been present during her previous matches on the Suzanne Lenglen court.

“There was a group of boys, all under 12, and they were cheering really loud. I really enjoyed that,” Gauff said.

“And they were respectful to my opponent, which I like when it’s like that.”

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