The Continuing Journey of Coco Gauff

HIGHLIGHTS: Coco Gauff reaches her first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros

SAN DIEGO—It’s been a long year for Coco Gauff. But it’s also been a productive year. As of this Monday, she’d played 51 singles and 31 doubles matches. There have been runs to the singles and doubles finals at Roland Garros, followed by Wimbledon, the North American hardcourt season and, now, an autumn stretch that’s beginning this week at the San Diego Open. At the end of this month, Gauff will head to Fort Worth for the WTA Finals, followed immediately by a trip across the Atlantic to Glasgow for the Billie Jean King Cup.

The San Diego Open is Gauff’s first tournament ranked inside the Top 10, yet another sign of the steady progress she’s made since first hitting the pro tennis radar at Wimbledon in 2019. Back then she was a surprising 15-year-old contender. Just over three years later, she’s an 18-year-old veteran.

On this Monday afternoon, an hour away from a practice session for her first-round doubles match paired with Jessica Pegula, Gauff said, “I definitely think this is probably the toughest part of the season for everyone just because all the Grand Slams are over so you're just trying to, get through the, the end of the season and you see the finish line. But for me I'm just motivated to try to finish it as well as I can and I'm glad that, you know, San Diego's kind of the start of the end.”

Yet as Gauff shared those insights, there was nothing weary or jaded in her manner. Perhaps one reason for this is that over the course of 2022, Gauff has broadened her focus beyond the tennis court. Gauff’s Roland Garros fortnight included many a walk through the streets of Paris. Just after this year’s US Open, Gauff took a week off, a time she today called “very weird, the first time I’ve taken seven days off of my life. . . no school, no tennis, no filming, nothing.”

This past weekend, Gauff attended TwitchCon 2022, a tech convention for streamers who illustrate, sculpt, sew and showcase their crafts and designs.

“I would say maybe a year, even a couple months ago, there's no way I would decide to go to TwitchCon before a tournament,” said Gauff But as those two weeks in Paris proved, time away from the court can improve what happens on the court.

Doubles has also played a major role in Gauff’s success this year. Said Gauff, “I had at first was just having a lot more doubles success in the beginning of the year than singles and then that transferred into my singles. So I definitely helped think it helps with momentum and getting you back in, into, I guess, match readiness.”

Playing the WTA Finals and the Billie Jean Cup on consecutive weeks will not be easy.

“I'm sure it's going be a challenge,” said Gauff. “But I did want to really play Billie Jean King Cup this year and obviously finals is the priority for probably everyone in the Top 10 right now. So it's going to be difficult, but I'm up for it.”

Gauff won her doubles match with Pegula, 7-5, 6-0. She plays her first singles match at the San Diego Open on Tuesday night versus qualifier Robin Montgomery.