Win one, next thing you know, you’re thinking of winning 10. That’s the case for American tennis star Coco Gauff, who is coming off her breakthrough victory in the U.S. Open to close last year’s majors calendar with high hopes in this year’s Australian Open. Gauff enters the tournament as the No. 4 seed, which matches her No. 4 ranking from the WTA.
Gauff mentioned that putting the U.S. Open win behind her was not too difficult because she always intended on winning more than one Grand Slam event. When the natural follow-up came–how many do you want to win–Gauff allowed herself to get a little bold.
“I would say recently, I feel like I wanted to get double digits,” Gauff said in her pre-tournament press conference. “That’s like, cool. But there’s no number. Yeah, who knows? That could change depending on how my career goes. But right now I would say double digits would be pretty awesome. I don’t know if that will happen but I think that’s a high goal. And setting my goals high pushes me beyond what I think I can do.”
Coco Gauff No. 4 Favorite in Australian Open
According to BetRivers Sportsbook, Gauff enters the Australian as the No. 4 favorite to win the tournament. From the site’s Twitter/X account:
“Odds for the women’s Australian Open:
Iga Swiatek +225 (top seed)
Elena Rybakina +475
Aryna Sabalenka +500
Coco Gauff +700
Jessica Pegula +1700
Naomi Osaka +2500″
Odds for the women’s Australian Open:
Iga Swiatek +225 (top seed)
Elena Rybakina +475
Aryna Sabalenka +500
Coco Gauff +700
Jessica Pegula +1700
Naomi Osaka +2500
Part of her ability to do so will be to let go of the U.S. Open win and focus on the task at hand. She said that has not been as difficult as some might thing. She dwelt on that victory for only a few days. In October, she played at the China Open.
“I think a week. Around that. When I went into China, I pretty much had it out of my head,” she said. “During the offseason, I did celebrate a little bit just because the U.S. Open was so fast. But now going into another Slam it really feels like so long ago. I kinda forget it happened. It depends on the player. Some players’ goal is to win a Grand Slam and once they reach that, it’s like, what’s next? I feel like for me, I always wanted to win multiple. So it was kinda easy to forget about it—not, forget that’s the wrong word. Just put it in the past and look forward to the future.”
‘I Played Some Really Good Tennis’
Adding some fuel to the Coco Gauff fire as the Australian Open gets started — Gauff will play Anna Karolína Schmiedlová of Slovakia at 8 pm ET on Sunday — is the way she played at the Auckland Classic last week. Gauff won the tournament, as she did last year.
She beat Elina Svitolina, the 23rd-ranked player in the WTA, in the final.
“I think pretty much, overall, in Auckland I played some really good tennis,” Gauff said. “In the final, I had chances to win that first set and I lost that. I think that was a good mental test because hopefully that doesn’t happen here. Hopefully, every set point I get here, I am able to get the set. I think having that tough match in the final, especially Elina, she did well at Wimbledon, she beat Iga (Swiatek). She has done consistently well at all the Slams, so she’s not an easy person to beat.”
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Coco Gauff Makes Bold Proclamation Ahead of Australian Open