Anastasia Potapova believes switch to Austrian nationality improved confidence in Gauff upset

[p]The 25-year-old rallied from a set ‌down to beat [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/gauff-coco/f5BXmEH6/"]Gauff[/a] [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/gauff-c-f5BXmEH6/potapova-a-x81l09qG/?mid=GjbaX6ed"]4-6, 7-6 (1), 6-4[/a] in the ‌third round, knocking out the fourth seed amid a breakthrough ‌season that has followed her switch to representing Austria.[/p][p]"[b]I ‌think it's also being a coincidence, which is nice, but also at the same time I do feel free, I feel better, ‌I feel the support from Austrian people,[/b]" [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/potapova-anastasia/x81l09qG/"]⁠Potapova[/a] told reporters when ‌asked whether her improved results were linked to the move.[/p][p]"[b]For sure ​it's given me extra boost of energy to fight for those wins.[/b]"[/p][image alt="Match Stats" id="1a4eed3e-a8aa-4f14-9e2f-252773139f5f" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="165f01f6-e002-44dd-885d-51a7b404d6a6" original-width="1200" original-height="1200" /][p]Potapova, who began representing Austria ​after obtaining citizenship in December, is one of several Russian-born players to have switched allegiance since Russia's 2022 invasion ⁠of Ukraine.[/p][p]This season she ​has established herself among the tour's most consistent performers on clay.[/p][embed guid="9afb1a22-6d51-4d44-acab-dfc41dac4c3a" url="https://x.com/rolandgarros/status/2060786608014598176?s=20" social-type="twitter" /][p]Last month, Potapova became the first lucky loser to reach the semi-finals of a WTA 1000 event when she made ‌a surprise run in Madrid, where she defeated former world number one [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/pliskova-karolina/xGn9KNfO/"]Karolina Pliskova[/a] as well as former French Open champion [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/ostapenko-jelena/Gloq9MUN/"]Jelena Ostapenko[/a] and world number two [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/rybakina-elena/UDzElXdm/"]Elena Rybakina[/a].[/p][p]Potapova pointed to a number of reasons when asked about how she has found such form.[/p][p]"[b]I've been here for 10 years on tour. This is the first time I managed to do this well and stay this consistent,[/b]" ‌she said.[/p][p]"[b]Maybe it's a combination of everything, of the experience ​that I have from previous years, of also a ‌maturity that I grown up, that I changed the mentality in my head.[/b][/p][p]"[b]We switched a lot of things with my team. I switched my team, first of all, and then we started to work on ⁠the new things. I ⁠think it's just giving ‌a positivity now[/b]."[/p]