"I don't know if I can say anything about that" - Mirra Andreeva dejected as two missed match points abolish US Open semi-final ambitions

Mirra Andreeva was just one point away from reaching the semi-finals of the US Open for the very first time. Two match points came and went with Coco Gauff taking her down in an eye-catching 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 win. The teenage sensation was despondent following the match as she tried to figure out what went wrong.

It was the dream start for Andreeva who played at a very high level while the 2023 champion struggled to get out of first gear. The second set was much more even with a string of four consecutive breaks ending with Gauff having missed a set point before Andreeva held her serve to draw level at 5-5.

A tiebreak was confirmed and it was remarkably close. From 5-3 down, Andreeva won three points on the trot to set up a first match point with a second chance coming soon after. Neither were taken and Gauff stayed in the clash.

That second set took a whopping 80 minutes. Gauff needed less than half of that time to see off Andreeva and continue her impeccable recent form to complete the US Open semi-final lineup.

She was pictured as a sombre and dissatisfied individual in her press conference following her heartbreaking quarter-final defeat. She tried to put her finger on what went wrong.

"Maybe risk more, I guess," she said. "I think at that moment I kind of just wanted to play, you know, wanted to make a rally, a longer point. So I think that if I maybe would have gone for something more risky to see what would have happened, maybe that would be the only thing that I would change."

That was Andreeva's sixth clash against Gauff, and she is yet to pick up a win against her American foe in what is becoming a frustrating streak versus one of the world's best. The 19-year-old noted patience as a big stumbling block for her against Gauff.

"I think she's just more patient than me, in a way that, you know, at some moments she makes fewer mistakes and obviously she gets a lot of balls back, which I think after I'm the one that's, you know, trying to rush and make more mistakes than her. So I think that's something to also see and take into account for the next matches that I'll play against her."

The two-time Grand Slam champion has been synonymous with being dragged into three-set battles on a regular basis, and normally winning them. Nevertheless, this was the first match since the opening match of the Cincinnati Open that Gauff dropped a set. As she forced that dreaded third set decider, Andreeva tried not to let those intrusive thoughts in her head.

"No, I didn't think about it. I tried to think less. I just tried to, you know, put my focus on every point that I have to play. So I know that she wins—now as you told me—yes, she wins a lot of three-set matches. And I mean, when I was playing, I didn't think that, you know, I have to close it out. 'Oh my God, what will happen if I'm not?' So I was just playing point by point."

Andreeva exited very early at Wimbledon in her first major tournament as a Grand Slam champion following her amazing Roland Garros run. However, a second round defeat at SW19 was a dreadful return and left her very down and frustrated with her showing.

She could take more positives compared to Wimbledon. "Well, maybe in a way that I finally was able to win more matches. I was more positive to myself. But yeah, I mean, other than that, I don't know."

Andreeva is known for having the odd tantrum on court, whether that is letting out some emotion or taking out some anger on her racket. At one point in the third set as she was getting pinned against the wall, she threw her racket towards her chair as she started to show hints of frustration with Gauff on the charge.

She spoke about keeping her emotions in and hiding them from her opponent. "That's true. I mean, I think every emotion that you show, your opponent is aware of something," she admitted. "But at that point, I felt like I was holding my emotions for too long, you know, not reacting on a lot of points in the first set, in the second set as well, after, you know, having match points and losing the set."

The tension was building up so much inside that she had to let some of it out. "But yeah, then I just, at one point, I just felt like, you know, I needed to let it out. And when I let those emotions out, I don't really think if, you know, I show anything to my opponent. And at that point, you know, I didn't think about it either."

It still remained really hard for the number five seed to say anything positive about the last couple of weeks in New York. "I mean, right now, I don't know if I can say anything about that. Maybe in a couple of days. But now, it's hard."