Coco Gauff admits she’ll ‘probably skip’ major WTA tournament in the future

Coco Gauff’s Middle East stint has wrapped up, and she’s now in California for the third WTA 1000 event of the season.

The world number four had a tough start to the ‘Golden Swing’, losing her first match at the Qatar Open to Elisabetta Cocciaretto. However, she responded well by making it to the semi-finals in Dubai, picking up wins over Anna Kalinskaya and Alexandra Eala along the way.

Gauff is now focusing on Indian Wells, where she’ll look to gain some momentum ahead of the Miami Open and then the clay-court season.

After her split results in Doha and Dubai, Gauff hinted that she might choose not to play both events next year.

Coco Gauff says she will ‘probably skip’ the Qatar Open in the future

Coco Gauff didn’t have the start to the ‘Golden Swing’ she was hoping for, despite showing some improvement with her serve. The American lost her opening match at the Qatar Open to Elisabetta Cocciaretto.

“Yeah, I mean, obviously I’m never going to say it’s a good thing, but it was kind of my body telling me that I needed a break,” she said after the tournament.

“I think after this past month and a half of matches, especially with January. Yeah, I had that result in Australia that took a lot out of me emotionally.”

The American has never made it past the quarter-finals of this event and has now suffered three consecutive second-round exits since making her debut two years ago.

The world number four reflected on these struggles before Indian Wells, suggesting she might skip Doha in future seasons.

“I mean, maybe in the future I’ll probably skip Doha,” Gauff said. “I love Doha, but I consistently have not played well there.”

Gauff also highlighted how crowded the schedule is during that stretch of the season.

“Yeah, I think the season is so packed,” she said. “And having a Grand Slam followed by two back-to-back 1000s just one week later is tough.

I don’t regret it because it already happened. It’s something I’ve done before and found success later in those seasons.”

Ranking points on offer: How much can Coco Gauff gain at Indian Wells?

A year ago at Indian Wells, Gauff reached the last 16 by defeating Moyuka Uchijima and Maria Sakkari before falling to Belinda Bencic (6-3, 3-6, 4-6).

As a result, Gauff earned 120 WTA ranking points; meaning this year, she could gain up to 780 ranking points. If Gauff were to win this year’s event, she could overtake Elena Rybakina and Iga Swiatek in the WTA rankings.

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