“I will win French Open 2025,” she scribbled. Then she kept writing, “I will win French Open 2025.” Line after line, eight in total, until the page surrendered to her ink. It was a ritual borrowed from Gabby Thomas, the American sprinter who, during the Paris Olympics, carved intentions into her Notes app each morning. But for Coco Gauff, the script turned cruel. Paris glory morphed into Paris gloom, grass betrayed her in back-to-back first-round exits, Wimbledon carved heartbreak, and the North American hard-court swing offered no semifinal solace. Now, with the US Open looming, even American tennis voices deliver a grim, foreboding verdict on the young champion’s fate.
Coco Gauff’s serving demons roared again under the Mason lights Friday, coughing up 16 double faults in a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 quarterfinal collapse to world No. 9 Jasmine Paolini at the Cincinnati Open. The French Open champion, still reeling after a R16 loss to Victoria Mboko in Canada, saw her last Masters semifinal chance vanish before the US Open horizon. With her hard-court swing now dripping with tension and doubt, former top-10 ace Chanda Rubin stepped forward, voicing concern for the young American star.
On the Tennis Channel desk alongside Lindsay Davenport and CoCo Vandeweghe, former top-10 star Chanda Rubin did not hesitate to reveal who concerns her most heading into New York. And, with a heavy tone of honesty, it was Coco Gauff. “I think for me, I’m looking a little bit more at Coco and just to kind of take the other side. Coco Gauff, you know, I think she won Roland Garros. She made a tough transition onto the grass. She figured, you know, tight turnaround. She had a lot of things going on. Didn’t quite get it going there,” Rubin explained, placing her cards on the table.
Her analysis cut deeper as she dissected Coco’s hard-court swing. “Now to start the hard court swing. You know she’s won a few matches. She won some matches here. Didn’t have to play a couple of matches. But I just thought she might be in a little better place. And we saw even with the double faults, she handles it so beautifully,” Rubin noted. Yet the tone shifted, “But we saw her start to get a little bit frayed, get a little irritated, you know, kind of directed at her team here or there. So that for me would be the only concern.”
Coco Gauff USA losing to Emma Navarro USA at the US Open 2024 TENNIS : US Open 2024 01/09/2024 AntoineCouvercelle/Panoramic PUBLICATIONxNOTxINxFRAxBEL
Rubin’s words carried both respect and unease, as she pressed further into the mental side of Gauff’s game. “How is she feeling? Is she feeling confident? Does she feel like she can work through some tough matches in New York? Does she have enough matches behind her on the hard courts to feel that? So that would be my concern,” she emphasized.
And yet, she refused to close the book on optimism, adding, “But, you know, certainly she has that ability. She has the athleticism to turn it on, and in New York, she gets such incredible energy. I think that’s going to go a long way for her. But certainly, the game was a little bit frustrating. I’m sure for her here.”
And while Rubin aired her concern with sharp precision, Coco herself responded in her own way. Following her Cincinnati defeat, the world No. 2 admitted that the relentless tennis calendar leaves little room for balance. She voiced that schedules and sessions often work against players, making it impossible to win every match.
(More to come…)
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