CNN
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Coco Goff broke down in tears after losing in straight sets in the fourth round of the Australian Open on Sunday, while fellow American Jessica Pegula advanced to the quarter-finals.
The 18-year-old Goff suffered a 7-5, 6-3 loss to Latvian Jelena Ostapenko on Margaret Court Arena and could not hide her disappointment when talking to reporters about the match afterwards.
Asked to explain his disappointment, a tearful Goff said: “I think it’s because I’ve worked really hard and I felt really good coming into the tournament and I still feel good. I still feel like I’ve improved a lot.
“But when you play a player like her and she plays really well, it seems like you can’t do anything.
“So it’s a little disappointing on that part.”
Goff was seeded seventh in Melbourne and has had an impressive start to the season, opening the season earlier this month by winning the ASB Classic for her third career WTA singles title in Auckland.
But Ostapenko held strong when it mattered, saving seven of eight break points, while taking all three of her chances on Goff’s serve.
“I think every loss is under my control because I think I’m a good player, but today she played better,” Goff said, according to Reuters.
“There were moments in the match when I was getting frustrated because I can usually solve the problem but today I felt like I didn’t have much of an answer to what she was doing.
“There were balls that I was hitting deep and she was hitting them on the line and hitting them deep, like, over and over. It’s one of those days that didn’t go my way and went his way. ”
Ostapenko is into the quarter-finals for the first time at Melbourne Park and will play Elena Rybakina, who beat women’s world No. 1 Iga Sviatek on Sunday.
Former French Open champion Rybakina, 23, defeated the 21-year-old 6-4, 6-4 at the Rod Laver Arena.
Sviatek was the tournament favorite after reaching the semifinals last year and winning eight titles, including two Grand Slams in 2022.
“I felt the pressure, and I felt ‘I don’t want to lose’ instead of ‘I want to win.’ It has a basis,” Sviatek told reporters.
Rybakina, who was born in Russia but has represented Kazakhstan since 2018, won her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon last year and the first for Kazakhstan.
Third-seeded Pegula now became the highest-ranked player in the women’s draw, beating Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-2 in one hour and 41 minutes.
The 2023 Australian Open will run until January 29 in Melbourne.
