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Coco Gauff has expressed her discontent with the Miami Open's handling of multiple rain delays during Day 4 of the WTA 1000 event.
Rain played spoilsport at the Miami Open on Friday, March 22, causing a six-hour delay before matches began. Despite play eventually getting underway, only seven singles WTA matches were completed before the rain returned.
Four matches were suspended, including Daria Kasatkina's when she was leading 2-0 against Claire Liu and Sorana Cirstea's, who was leading 5-2 against Sloane Stephens.
Seven matches didn't begin at all, with blockbuster clashes like Iga Swiatek vs. Camila Giorgi, Naomi Osaka vs. Elina Svitolina, and Jessica Pegula vs. Zhu Lin getting postponed to the next day.
Coco Gauff was fortunate to complete her match before rain halted play, securing a commanding 6-1, 6-2 win over Nadia Podoroska to reach the third round.
The American expressed satisfaction with her dominant performance, especially given the "long wait" she had to endure before the match.
"Yeah, it was a good match for me. Lots of waiting, but glad we were able to get it done today. Yeah, happy with how I played," she said during her post-match press conference.
"I was most pleased with just starting the match well 'cause when you come out and it's a long wait, you never know how you're going to start," she said.
The World No. 3, who resides in Miami, disclosed that she arrived at the venue at the usual time and spent the rain delays interacting with fans, reading and playing games.
Much like fans, Gauff voiced her frustration with the tournament organizers for the "unrealistic" start times conveyed to them, describing the situation as "weird."
"Yeah, so I came as normal schedule, even I knew it was going to rain. Shortened my warm-up before I hit so I could get a chance to hit. I did hit 15 minutes at, like, 9 in the morning. Don't know if that made a difference because we played so much later," Coco Gauff said.
"Yeah, I was just waiting around, talked to some folks, played some games, read. It felt like a long wait. I was kind of not sure when to eat. Also the tournament was giving us unrealistic 'not before' times, so that felt a little bit weird, too," she added.
Coco Gauff: "I honestly didn't want to come out here tomorrow where it's supposed to rain and wait all day again to play"
During the aforementioned press conference, Coco Gauff also shed light on her mindset during the match, expressing her determination to close out her win quickly on noticing the darkening skies.
The 20-year-old shared that she lookee to not to extend the clash to the next day to avoid further delays.
"I didn't really think about trying to finish until the last game of the match when I kind of saw it getting darker, then they turned on the lights, the temperature dropped. I'm from here, so I know that's like rain coming any second," Coco Gauff said.
"That's when I thought about the weather. It was like, Okay, let's get it done. Especially a match like this where you're so close to finishing. I honestly didn't want to come out here tomorrow where it's supposed to rain and wait all day again to play. I was like, Let me try to get it done as quick as possible," she added.
Following her win over Nadia Podoroska, Coco Gauff will square off against Oceane Dodin in the third round of the Miami Open.
