Coco Gauff secured the third round of Roland-Garros with a confident victory against Mayar Sherif
Coco Gauff continued her title defense at Roland-Garros with a second-round victory in the women’s singles against Mayar Sherif. The tournament’s fourth seed defeated the Egyptian qualifier 6:3, 6:2 in a match played on May 28, 2026, on the Suzanne-Lenglen court in Paris. According to official Roland-Garros data, the match lasted one hour and 50 minutes, and Gauff managed to impose her rhythm in both sets during key periods and avoid extending the contest. The score suggests a relatively convincing passage, but the course of the match was more dynamic than the difference in games alone, especially because of the large number of breaks of serve. The American tennis player thereby secured a place in the third round of the season’s second Grand Slam tournament and maintained her continuity on the Paris clay, where in recent years she has built one of the most stable Grand Slam profiles in women’s tennis.
Control of the score despite numerous breaks
Gauff entered the match as the favorite, but Sherif tried from the beginning to impose a physically demanding rhythm and extend the rallies. According to the beIN Sports report, Gauff had to save a break point in the very first game, but after that she quickly found a better tempo and took a 3:0 lead with an early break of serve. Such a start was important because Sherif is a player who feels most comfortable on clay courts and often relies on patient point construction, the high bounce of the ball and solidity from the baseline. Gauff, however, used the depth of her shots better and took the initiative more quickly when she opened up the court, preventing her opponent from remaining longer in neutral rallies. Although Sherif managed twice in the first set to recover a break and thereby briefly threaten a comeback, the American responded each time with renewed pressure on her opponent’s serve.
The first set therefore had more tactical shifts than the 6:3 score suggests at first glance. Gauff did not dominate solely with her serve, but built her advantage through her reaction after lost games and her ability to return immediately to an attacking position. According to the same report, the closing stage of the set went her way after she managed to stabilize her own serve and close out the section without a major drop in concentration. In such circumstances, the key was not only aggressiveness, but also the fact that Gauff controlled the transition from defense to attack better. Sherif occasionally managed to extend points and force the favorite to play an extra shot, but she did not find enough consistent solutions for deep backhands and quick changes of direction.
The second set opened with a series of lost service games
The second set again brought nervousness on serve. According to data from the beIN Sports report, the beginning of the second section was marked by five consecutive breaks, showing how much both players struggled to confirm an advantage. In such a scenario, the match could have become complicated, especially because Sherif has experience in long matches on clay and does not easily give up on physically demanding exchanges. Still, from the sixth game Gauff took clearer control. She managed to maintain pressure on return, reduce the number of weaker decisions in the first shots after the serve and force her opponent to play increasingly often from defensive positions.
The American played the closing stage of the second set more calmly than her opponent. When she managed to end the run of lost service games, the score advantage began to turn into real control of play. Gauff then stepped into the court more often, and her backhand remained her most reliable weapon in moments when it was necessary to shorten the point or change the direction of the rally. According to the beIN Sports report, she concluded the match with a powerful backhand winner, which fit into the broader picture of the encounter: Sherif could create resistance and occasionally disrupt the favorite’s serving rhythm, but she did not manage to maintain for long enough the level needed for a turnaround.
Gauff confirms her status as one of the main contenders in Paris
This victory carries additional weight because Gauff arrived in Paris as the defending champion. According to the official WTA profile, the American tennis player won Roland-Garros in 2025 with a victory against Aryna Sabalenka in the final, thereby claiming the second Grand Slam title of her career after the 2023 US Open. At this year’s Roland-Garros she is competing as the fourth seed, and the WTA stated before and during the tournament that she is currently the fourth player in the world. Such status brings a different kind of pressure: Gauff is no longer a young challenger chasing the biggest results from the background, but a player from whom a deep run and a fight for the final stages are expected in Paris.
Her advantage on clay comes from a combination of movement, defensive stability and the ability to return quickly into a point from difficult positions. The official Roland-Garros profile describes her as a tennis player who relies on speed, power, tactical awareness and a solid backhand, with an emphasis on the fact that she is constantly working on greater reliability of her serve and forehand. Precisely some of those elements were visible against Sherif: Gauff did not have a perfect serving day, but she found enough solutions in rallies and on return. For a player defending a title, it is especially important to win even when the match is not completely clean, because Grand Slam tournaments rarely offer seven ideal performances in a row.
Sherif offered resistance, but failed to change the course of the match
Mayar Sherif entered this encounter from qualifying, which means that she had already played a significant number of competitive sets in Paris before the second round. According to the official Roland-Garros profile, Sherif came through three qualifying matches and then defeated Dalma Galfi 7:5, 6:4 in the first round of the main draw. In qualifying, according to the same source, she defeated Andrea Lazaro García in three sets, Martina Trevisan after a long match and Greet Minnen in two sets. That path through qualifying further explains why she was ready for long rallies against Gauff and why on several occasions she was able to respond to the favorite’s pressure.
Sherif is one of the most recognizable African tennis players on the WTA Tour and a player who has achieved most of her best results precisely on clay. According to the official Roland-Garros profile, her best singles ranking was No. 31, and before this appearance she was listed as the world No. 129. The same profile also states that before 2026 she had reached the second round of Roland-Garros several times, including appearances in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Against Gauff, she confirmed that she can disrupt rhythm and seek opportunities on return, but the difference in the speed of taking the initiative and the quality of finishing shots ultimately decided the match in favor of the American.
A match that also reveals areas for improvement
Although Gauff advanced without losing a set, the number of breaks shows that there is still room in her game for greater stabilization of her serve. According to the beIN Sports report, the match featured a total of 11 breaks, which is unusually many for a contest that ended in two sets. That fact does not diminish the value of the victory, but it shows that Gauff will not be able to rely only on quality in rallies in the remainder of the tournament. Against players who punish the second serve better or finish points more quickly, every drop in serving rhythm could be more costly than it was against Sherif.
On the other hand, the positive side for Gauff is her reaction after unstable parts of the match. In both sets she managed to recognize the moment when she had to increase the pressure and separate herself on the scoreboard. In the first set, she did not allow Sherif’s return to the match to change the psychological picture of the contest, and in the second, after the series of breaks, she was the first to find enough calm for consolidation. This is often a feature of players who can go far at a Grand Slam: victory is built not only from the best shots, but also from the ability to avoid extending a match when the opponent gains a brief period of momentum.
The American continues a run of notable results at Roland-Garros
Gauff’s relationship with Roland-Garros developed gradually, from junior successes to the status of one of the seeds in the women’s tournament. According to the official WTA profile, she won junior Roland-Garros in 2018, and in senior competition she reached the final in Paris for the first time in 2022, when she lost to Iga Świątek. After that she continued to build a reputation as a player for the biggest stages, winning the 2023 US Open, the 2024 WTA Finals and Roland-Garros in 2025. Such a trajectory explains why each of her victories in Paris is viewed not only through the result, but also through the question of whether she can again withstand the pressure of the closing stages.
According to beIN Sports, with this victory Gauff reached her 29th win in the Roland-Garros main draw before her 23rd birthday, thereby surpassing Mary Joe Fernandez’s performance among American tennis players in that age category. The same source also states that she became the first player since Maria Sharapova to reach 80 victories in women’s singles matches at Grand Slam tournaments before turning 23. Such data further highlights how early in her career Gauff moved from the category of great hope into the category of a player with lasting impact at the biggest tournaments. In modern women’s tennis, where the level of competition changes quickly, such stability is especially valuable.
The third round brings a different challenge
After the victory against Sherif, Gauff turns to the third round, where a new adjustment to a different style of play awaits her. According to reports from the tournament, her next opponent is Anastasia Potapova, who reached the next stage of the competition with a victory against Katie Boulter. This means that Gauff will have to maintain her aggressiveness from the baseline, but also further raise the percentage of safe service games. In the second week of a Grand Slam tournament there is usually not much room for oscillations, and even third-round matches often serve as a real test of the readiness of title contenders.
For Gauff, an important circumstance is that she came through the first two rounds without losing a set. Such an outcome preserves energy and reduces pressure in a schedule that at Roland-Garros can be demanding because of weather conditions, the duration of matches and the specific nature of the clay surface. Still, the encounter against Sherif was a reminder that the score does not always reveal all the cracks in a player’s game. If she wants to continue the defense of her title, Gauff will need to maintain her level of returning and movement in the rest of the tournament, but at the same time avoid long series of lost service games. The 6:3, 6:2 victory was therefore for her both a confirmation of quality and a useful warning before tougher opponents.
Sources:
- Roland-Garros – official match record of Coco Gauff and Mayar Sherif in the second round of the 2026 women’s singles (link)
- beIN Sports – report on the course of the encounter, the number of breaks and the context of Gauff’s victory (link)
- WTA – official Coco Gauff profile with data on ranking, season and career (link)
- Roland-Garros – official Coco Gauff profile with biographical and playing data (link)
- Roland-Garros – official Mayar Sherif profile with results, ranking and appearances in Paris (link)