Coco Gauff missed an opportunity to close the gap to the top two players in the WTA Rankings with her shock early defeat at the Qatar Open, but she has been told “there is no reason to hit the panic button”.
Reigning US Open champion Gauff kicked off the first WTA 1000 event of the season in Doha as one of the hottest players on tour as she was 10-1 for the season on the back of successfully defending her ASB Classic title while she also reached the semi-final of the Australian Open.
Her run at Melbourne Park also helped her to edge slightly closer to Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka in the WTA Rankings and, with the latter not competing in Doha, there was an opportunity for the Gauff to make further ground on the world No 2 ranking.
Swiatek had some distance between herself and the rest as she effectively started the event on 9,300 points with Sabalenka on 8,905 and Gauff on 7,110. A title run for Gauff would have seen her move closer to Sabalenka, but she missed an opportunity.
Instead, Gauff left Doha empty-handed as she was stunned by world No 42 Katerina Siniakova in the second round with the Czech outplaying her to record a 6-2, 6-4 victory.
Former world No 9 and current tennis analyst CoCo Vandeweghe says despite the defeat, Gauff needs to focus on the bigger picture, especially the upcoming Sunshine Double in Indian Wells and Miami.
“There is nothing better than coming into the US swing of Indian Wells and Miami for Coco Gauff right now,” she said on the Tennis Channel.
“It is going to be really important for her to manage the expectations going forward into the rest of the year. It’s a long year, it’s a marathon not a sprint so I definitely agree that there is no reason to hit the panic button.
“Yes, you don’t want to go out early, especially at a 1000 event as they are few and far between and you really want to excel at those 1000s, but we have to manage the expectations of Coco Gauff. Yes, she is a Grand Slam champion, but she is still very young in her career.
“She needs to beat these players and not go down too much to these players because once these WTA players see a chink in the armour – as great as Coco is right now – they will pounce on those opportunities and won’t be afraid of her moving forward at the Grand Slams where everyone wants to play great tennis.”
Gauff and the rest of the top players on the WTA Tour will remain in the Middle East next week as they move to the United Arab Emirates for the Dubai Tennis Championships before heading to the United States for the Indian Wells Open at the beginning of March.
It is another WTA 1000 event so there will once again be a lot of points on offer, but this time Gauff is defending 350 points as she reached the semi-final last year.
Pundit Prakash Amritraj also feels it is best for the teenager, who turns 20 on March 13, to shake off the Qatar defeat and focus on the bigger picture.
“These are one of those things that you just got to toss out the window. It does not have any significance on the larger scheme of things for Coco,” he said.
“She has been playing phenomenal tennis all the way from the US Open, she has elevated herself from the tier she was at to the absolute highest tiers of the game. These are one of those things… some weeks you win, some weeks you lose and for her it is all about the biggest events. Yes, this does have a lot of points, but I think she shakes it off and gets ready for the spring.”
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