Coco Gauff reveals ‘car accident’ before opening round win at Roland-Garros 2026: “The car was not drivable”

Coco Gauff had an eventful day to begin her French Open title defence at Roland-Garros 2026.

The USA tennis star revealed that she was involved in a car crash while being driven to the grounds on Tuesday (26 May). She was unharmed and saw the positive side of the story when she recalled it to her friend and former ATP player, Christopher Eubanks.

“We kind of got into a mini car accident on my way to the site today,” Gauff told TNT Sports. “There’s this pole [on the road] that’s supposed to go down, and then the police told [the driver] to go, and the pole was still there, so we ran into it.

“You felt a little impact – I spilt my juice all over the car! I was like, ‘We can keep going’, then I walk out the car and the car was not drivable. So we end up taking a taxi to [Stade] Jean-Bouin and then we took a tournament car to the tournament.”

“I feel like it’s a good omen, everything happening in my first round,” she said, referring to Alexandre Müller’s retirement against Stefanos Tsitsipas which brought Gauff on Court Philippe-Chatrier earlier than anticipated.

The incident did not faze the reigning champion, who began her title defence with a 6-4, 6-0 victory against U.S. compatriot Taylor Townsend. Gauff meets unseeded Egyptian player Maya Sherif in the second round on Thursday (28 May).

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