Coco Gauff’s ‘opportunities’ claim as she reflects on Middle East form criticism
Coco Gauff believes critics make a “bigger deal” of her losses than they should ahead of her impending Indian Wells campaign.
World No 3 Gauff leads home hopes at the prestigious combined ATP and WTA 1000 event, with the 20-year-old the highest-ranked American on either tour.
However, she comes into this tournament following three consecutive straight-set defeats in WTA Tour action.
Paula Badosa beat Gauff in the last eight of the Australian Open, before a 6-2, 7-5 loss to Marta Kostyuk at the Qatar Open was followed by a 6-4, 7-5 loss to McCartney Kessler at the Dubai Tennis Championships.
Her dip in form comes after a strong run which saw her lift the China Open and WTA Finals titles at the end of 2024 before anchoring the USA’s run to the United Cup title.
Despite a dip in results, Gauff believes there will be plenty of “opportunities” for her to return to form and silence any doubters.
“Everyone makes a bigger deal than what it is,” said Gauff, ahead of her Indian Wells campaign. “I lost two matches – I’ll lose more matches back to back. It’s going to happen.
“Everyone is, like: ‘Oh, she’s sinking.’ Okay, we’ve been through this. I’ll pick it back up. To me, for me, I guess it feels like a month, but it’s just two tournaments, and at this calendar, I have so many other opportunities, and I can’t win every match.
“But at the end of the day, I was upset that I lost, but it’s a loss, like, it’s going to happen again. I’m going to lose back-to-back again. Hopefully, it doesn’t happen too many times in my career.
“It’s just one of those things that you just move on and get better. You know, the results will come. It’s, you know, just normal, I think.”
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Gauff reached the Indian Wells semi-finals a year ago, and is set to play her opening match on Saturday, having received an opening-round bye.
The American could face fellow Grand Slam champion Emma Raducanu in the second round, should the Brit beat Moyuka Uchijima.
Gauff’s build-up to her Indian Wells campaign has been dominated by her appearance at the Oscars, gracing the red carpet and the famed Vanity Fair after-party.
Reflecting on her experience, the 20-year-old admitted it was “weird” for her to be recognised by so many people.
She added: “It was cool to be in a different space and a different world. I got lucky that Miu Miu was able to dress me and give me a custom look. That was really sweet of them.
“The person I was most surprised about was definitely Samuel L. Jackson. He came up to me, I took a photo with him, he took one with me, and then introduced me to Whoopi Goldberg, which was really cool.
“I also saw Ben Stiller out there. I wasn’t so surprised at him because I know he’s a tennis fan, but I told him he has to come to one of my matches because I only really see him at the men’s matches – so I told him he has to come.
“I got to meet a lot of people, Halle Bailey, which was super sweet. It was a fun event to meet people and definitely was surprised most people knew who I was, which was weird.”
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