Mayar Sherif ‘proud’ of Roland Garros performance against Coco Gauff, who hailed Egyptian’s ‘bravery’

PARIS: Mayar Sherif’s journey at this year’s Roland Garros came to an end on Thursday with a second-round defeat to defending champion Coco Gauff but the Egyptian says she leaves Paris feeling “proud” of her performances and “motivated” for what’s to come.
Sherif, who won four matches in Paris through qualifying and main draw, pushed Gauff hard across their one-hour 50-minute battle on Court Suzanne-Lenglen before falling to the American No. 4 seed 6-3, 6-2.
Gauff later hailed Sherif’s “bravery” and said the Egyptian world No. 129 proved to be one of her toughest opponents of the year so far, alongside Elina Svitolina, who beat Gauff in the Rome final earlier this month.
“First, I know she’s a tough competitor. I think she got to top 31 in the world, and I played her three years ago in Cincinnati. I knew what to expect and knew it was going to be a tough, physical match,” said Gauff of Sherif.
“I definitely think she’s a bit underrated. She’s someone you don’t really want to play, especially on clay, because she really makes you earn every point, more so than anyone I’ve played this year so far. Maybe between her and Elina have been my most physical matches, despite the scoreline today being a little more straightforward, but we had many long games.”
Sherif has been making history for Egypt for the past several years on the tennis tour. She is the first Egyptian woman to win a match at a Grand Slam, to crack the top 100 and the top 50, to compete at the Olympics in tennis, and to win a WTA title.
Three years ago, the Cairo native became the highest-ranked Egyptian in tennis history, surpassing Ismail El-Shafei on her way to her career-high spot of 31 in the world.
“What she’s doing is incredible, and I definitely think that should be celebrated,” Gauff continued.
“It’s not easy to be a top-100 player and stay there consistently, and especially now with the depth of the tour. She’s a fighter.
“Our scouting report before the match, the main thing my coach reiterated was that her biggest strength, literally word what he said, is her biggest strength is her bravery, and it showed today.”
Sherif’s mental strength is indeed her greatest asset but the 30-year-old admits she had been struggling in that department lately before things turned around for her in Paris.
Typically known for focusing on what matters the most, Sherif strayed from that approach and began worrying about defending points, her ranking, and making the cut for Grand Slam events.
But halfway through her qualifying journey at the French Open, she recaptured a spark that had been missing for a while, and she now feels she is back on track, feeling locked-in on the court and ready for any fight that comes her way.
When told about Gauff’s comments about her, Sherif told Arab News on Thursday: “I really like hearing that.
“After the match, Justo (my coach) told her, ‘You’re so tough’. She said, ‘No, you’re the ones who are tough. There were such long rallies, you made me work for it’. Even her coach told me the same thing.
“I know that one of my strengths is that, mentally, I’m very tough. Which is why this past period my results weren’t good because I was struggling mentally.
“I feel like lately my mentality has improved here in Paris, it is back to where it was. I’m happy because my tennis is better than it’s ever been, and I have the experience, and it was just that the mental part was missing as of late.
“So for her to say something like this, that makes me very, very proud. And hopefully I’ll take it on in a positive way.”
Sherif has had the chance of contesting some big matches against top players in some of the grandest tennis stadiums in the world.
She has faced the likes of Gauff and Madison Keys on Court Suzanne Lenglen and took on a second-seeded Karolina Pliskova on Court Philippe Chatrier at Roland Garros. She played a fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open and a seventh-seeded Mirra Andreeva on Wimbledon’s Court 3 last summer.
Against Gauff on Thursday, she received significant support from the crowd, which included Egyptian handball star Yahia Omar, who won the French championship with PSG earlier this week.
“I knew many people were coming to watch me today and on TV at home and I was so happy about that to be honest,” Sherif said.
“I’m very happy that I’m back getting some attention in Egypt; I like this kind of attention. And at the same time, I was calm in the court, I knew I had the level, so I enjoyed it.
“Even when I was down 0-3 in the first set, I was calm. Two years ago I played Madison Keys on that same court, I lost the first set 6-0 and I didn’t compete, I had doubts, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen.
“But now, I feel that as a player, I am more complete, I can compete with anybody. I just need to improve my physicality so I can beat someone like Coco, who is the best player on tour physically.”
Sherif broke the Gauff serve four times during the match, won 72 percent of her second-serve return points, and 15/21 points up at the net.
“I need to be physically very ready to make another step forward in my career if I want to, but I’m definitely motivated,” Sherif said.
“The level is there, which is tough for many players to have the level. Physicality is something that I can control. So I think I just need to work on it.”
Despite etching her names in the history books, accomplishing unprecedented feats by an Egyptian, Sherif may not always get the recognition she deserves, and like Gauff said, can be “underrated”.
“Honestly, it doesn’t affect me,” said Sherif, when asked if that bothers her.
“I don’t care what people think about me, but I feel I deserve more attention from the federation or the Olympic committee. They have one tennis player at this level and they should take care of her but that isn’t happening.
“I don’t know what kind of message they are sending to the younger players hoping to move up the ranks when the only professional player they have, they don’t support her, not even on social media. So it’s of course quite depressing.
“But it is what it is. I always try to focus on myself, I try to stay away from the noise online.”
Staying clear of social media is something that has helped Sherif keep her focus, which came in handy earlier this tournament when a random rumor emerged online that she had been murdered and found dead at home.
Sherif has no idea how this outrageous story came to be but she suddenly started receiving messages and calls from people wanting to check on her on the eve of her Roland Garros qualifying campaign.
“My coach always tells me that one of the good things about me is that I am not too engrossed in social media, I really barely see any of the stuff said about me online,” she added.
Sherif will now head to her base in Spain for a few days before she flies to Italy to compete in a WTA 125 tournament in Modena, Italy.
She will be contesting the qualifying rounds at Wimbledon next month and aims to get her ranking back up to inside the top 100 so she can make the cut for WTA 1000 events in Canada and Cincinnati this summer.