Just before her opening-round match at the French Open, Coco Gauff experienced a “mini car accident” while being driven to the venue. During the impact, she even spilled her juice inside the car, though she later laughed it off and called it a good omen, especially after going on to win her first-round match against Taylor Townsend.

However, just a day later, Naomi Osaka revealed a far more alarming incident. In her post-match press conference following her second-round win over Donna Vekić, the four-time Grand Slam champion said that the car she was traveling in was hit by a bus, and unlike Gauff’s light-hearted scare, this was far from a minor mishap.

“Yes, we had a little accident two days ago. I wasn’t afraid for my life, but I did think: ‘Wow, this bus is really crushing our car.’ You could clearly hear the car breaking as it kept pushing us. The weirdest part was that the bus kept moving forward and forward. For a moment, I even thought it was going to flip our car completely,” Osaka said.  

Later, the Japanese pro added that although the incident was dangerous, she managed to stay calm throughout. “I realized that in dangerous situations, I don’t really panic. I just think very slowly: ‘Okay, this is happening.’”

In fact, when she walked on the court to take on Donna Vekic for the second round match, she did not show any sign of weakness. Osaka advanced to the third round of the French Open for the first time since 2019, defeating Donna Vekic in straight sets, even after the traumatizing incident. 

“Mentally, I am very different even compared to last year. Last year, I used to get very stressed when the matches were tight. I would quite panic and struggle a lot to handle those moments,” she admitted. 

Interestingly, when Osaka returned to the tour last year after a 15-month paternity break, she opened up about the emotional challenges she was going through. The former World No. 1 spoke about dealing with postpartum depression and often feeling guilt over time spent away from her daughter.

But stepping back on court also gave her something important: a renewed sense of purpose and identity beyond sleepless nights and maternal guilt, helping her reconnect with herself through the game she loves.

“Now I just try to play point by point. I am quite at peace with the idea of losing as long as I feel I gave absolutely everything and made the match as difficult as possible for my opponent,” Osaka added.

But that sense of security was not without its bitter moments early in the season. After a straight-sets loss to Talia Gibson in the first round of the Miami Open, Osaka was uncharacteristically blunt about where she stood emotionally. She was genuinely disappointed in herself, and was pondering whether she should keep going if she was not going to the later stages of tournaments and winning them. She even said she “would rather not do it” and spend more time with her daughter than grind through a tour that was not giving her the results she needed. That admission made her composure in Paris, a bus crash and all, feel even more significant. She came here with a point to prove to herself, and so far she is proving it.

The Japanese star will now face Iva Jovic in her third-round clash at Roland Garros. And while Naomi Osaka managed to move past a rather unsettling incident on her way to the venue, Coco Gauff’s earlier car mishap, which involved her vehicle hitting a pole, was comparatively minor, though it still caused quite a bit of chaos in the moment.

A pole, a spilled juice, and a taxi: How Coco Gauff’s chaotic morning became her good omen

Coco Gauff’s morning prior to her round one encounter with Taylor Townsend was what would have caused most players to collapse. It began in the car on the way to the court, rapidly spiraled out of control, and continually created problems until the time she stepped onto the court. 

The car she was travelling in clipped a pole on the road to the venue. The impact was not severe, but it was felt. “We kind of got in like a mini car accident on my way to the site today. So there’s like this whole thing, and it’s supposed to go down. And then the police told him to go, and the pole was still there. So we ran into it and it was kind of like, you know, you felt a little impact,” she told TNT Sports US afterwards.

The juice she was carrying went all over the car on impact, and Gauff’s immediate instinct was to keep moving. “I spilled my juice all over the car, and I was like, we can keep going.”

Except she could not. When she stepped outside to check the damage, it was clear the car was not going anywhere. “The car was not drivable. So we ended up taking a taxi to Jean-Bouin Stadium, and then we took a tournament car to the tournament.” Her pre-match car routine had taken a turn for the worse, and a completely new logistical chain was needed to bring her to the Roland Garros gates in time. 

And then her dress got stuck in the bathroom. Her physio, Maria Vago, who was in Paris to attend to Gauff’s muscle recovery and match-day preparations, was in a totally different position just minutes before the reigning champion’s opening match. “My physio was in the bathroom trying to help me, like take it out,” Gauff said. It was a farcical conclusion to a morning that had already thrown everything it had at her.

Gauff, being Gauff, chose to land on the positive. “I feel like it’s a good omen. Maybe everything is happening in my first round. Whenever that happens, it just lets you not think about the match too much. I’m just happy to be here.” 

She came out onto Philippe-Chatrier and was able to win the first set 6-4 and then close the second set out 6-0 with some of the cleanest tennis of her title defense. Once Gauff got going, Townsend, ranked 79 in the world, couldn’t handle her. For some reason, the morning chaos had done just what Gauff said it would: It had distracted her from the game. 

The fourth seed is through to the third round now, having defeated Egyptian qualifier Mayar Sherif 6-3, 6-2. She will be facing the 28th seed Anastasia Potapova in the round of 32 on Saturday.