Coco Gauff doesn't think she can ever "hit someone off the court" like Elena Rybakina

Coco Gauff is eager to play a more aggressive brand of tennis, but she is unsure if she can ever match the way Elena Rybakina takes the racquet out of the opponent's hands.

Gauff is currently in action at the Stuttgart Open, where in the first round she came from a break down in the third set to defeat Veronika Kudermetova. The young American registered 53 unforced errors to 24 winners in the match, while Kudermetova had 80 unforced errors to 35 winners.

With 15 breaks of serve in total, the momentum in the match kept swinging heavily. But Gauff ultimately prevailed in the third set tiebreaker as she was a little steadier than her opponent.

More significantly, Gauff's win against Kudermetova marked 12 months since she last lost a completed opening match at a tournament. That was against Daria Kasatkina in Stuttgart last year.

This is not counting her retirement against Marie Bouzkova in the Cincinnati Masters and her three defeats in the round-robin stage of the WTA Finals.

Speaking at a press conference after her win over Kudermetova, Coco Gauff indicated that she is looking to play a more risky brand of tennis. She asserted that she wants to do so even if it resulted in her losing points sometimes.

Gauff also stated, however, that she'd never be able to match Rybakina's power and that the latter could "literally hit someone off the court."

"I wouldn't say, like, I don't think I will ever be like Rybakina who can really literally hit someone off the court. I think more so the way I want to play is being aggressive on the right shots," she said.

"I think the tiebreaker I did really well in that," she added. "A lot of the shots I hit were kind of close to the line, but I think those are the shots that I know I can make. I missed a couple of those earlier in the match, but it's the fact that I went for them, I think that's when I made them when I needed to."

Elaborating on the need to change her style, the 2022 French Open finalist said:

"The final is great, but like I feel like since then last year, I feel like the way I have been losing matches has been because of that, I need to change something.

"So I think just keeping that mentality I had last year, using my physicality to make them play tennis but also not making them comfortable where they feel like they can just hit me off the court. So I think it's just finding that balance, and I'm still trying to figure it out."

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Anastasia Potapova awaits Coco Gauff in 2023 Stuttgart Open 2R

Anastasia Potapova defeated Coco Gauff in the 2023 Miami Open.

Following her defeat of Veronika Kudermetova, Coco Gauff will lock horns with Anastasia Potapova in the second round of the 2023 Stuttgart Open. Potapova also registered a hard-fought win in her opening round, beating Petra Martic 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (4).

The two recently met in the third round of the Miami Open, where Potapova rallied from a set down to beat Gauff 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-2. Gauff, who leads 2-1 in the head-to-head, is well aware that she'll have to be at her best to defeat the Russian.

"I'm not expecting an easy match. She's been playing better and better each week. I think that I'm just going to have to keep that aggressive mindset, especially against her, someone who can come up with some big shots," Coco Gauff said.