Coco Gauff wasn’t able to come to her post-match press conference on Sunday night in Indian Wells, but she did take questions and answer them via a tour representative.
The American lost to Alexandra Eala, 6-2, 2-0 RET and later described the pain she felt, which started in her left arm in the second game of the match.
“I felt it, like, the second game of the first set,” she said. “I guess a simple way to put it, it felt like a firework was going off inside of my arm, and then my whole arm felt like it was on fire.”
Gauff says she’ll no tomorrow, but she has a hunch the issue is nerve-related.
Yeah, we’re going to figure out what it is tomorrow, but based off the feeling, being told that it’s probably something nerve-related,” she said. “Never had anything like this before, never felt anything, a sensation like this before. And then as the match played, it got progressively worse, even when I wasn’t using my arm on shots that I wasn’t even using my left arm for.
“It was feeling like fireworks at times. Yeah, it was a scary feeling, but yeah, I don’t know.”
That said, Gauff believes the injury is nothing serious, and says she will likely be fine for the Miami Open later this month.
“We’re going tomorrow to get an MRI and to see what’s going on,” she said. “Good news is they don’t think it’s going to be like a long-term type of situation, so I should be fine for Miami. We’ve just got to figure out exactly what it is and, I guess, how to prevent it in the future.”