Coco Gauff Shrugs Off Car Accident To Dominate French Open

Coco Gauff is currently running through the competition at the French Open, and she’s not letting a series of unfortunate events stop her motion. 

Ahead of her first-round match against Taylor Townsend, while en route to the venue, Gauff explained that she was in a car accident.

She claims it was minor, but the damage to the car says otherwise.

“We got in a mini car accident on my way to the site today,” Gauff said while laughing. “We ran into a pole. You felt a little impact. I spilled my juice all over the car.”

She said she described the situation as a movable pylon pole, and despite the cops telling them to keep driving, they eventually hit it. 

Gauff thought it was a fender bender at first, but after getting out and determining the car wasn’t drivable, they called a car to take them to another spot, where the tournament’s car service then picked them up. 

That was only the beginning of a rough string of events, as a near-wardrobe malfunction was next.

“Right before I went onto court, my dress got stuck, so my physio was in the bathroom trying to help me take it off,” she said. “It was an eventful day. But I feel like whenever that happens, it lets you not think about the match too much. I’m just happy to be here in one piece.”

She ended the interview by saying the bad luck may have been a “good omen,” because Gauff had no choice but to persevere through it, because after all, she’s the reigning French Open champion.

With the car accident and the outfit snafu in the past, she got back to business and defeated fellow American Taylor Townsend quickly and easily in straight sets (6-4, 6-0).

She followed that up with a dominant second-round win over Egypt’s Mayar Sherif, also in two sets (6-3,6-2). But the match did come with its own challenge, like the extreme heat (which led to a spectator passing out), and even after the match, Gauff called her a “bit underrated.”

But now she’s on to the next round to play Austria’s Anastasia Potapova, on her quest to repeat as the French Open champion after defeating the No. 1-ranked Aryna Sabalenka last year.

See social media’s reaction to Gauff’s dominance in the French Open so far below.