Coco Gauff’s 2024 season went from bad to worse when she suffered a fourth-round loss at the US Open, following early eliminations from the 2024 Paris Olympics, Wimbledon and Cincinnati Open.
The young American appeared to have reached a breaking point when she fired her coach, Brad Gilbert, and hinted at taking a long break to recover physically and mentally.
That’s exactly why everyone was shocked when Gauff announced her last-minute entry into the China Open, and even more so when she powered her way to the WTA 1000 title with a win over Karolina Muchova on Sunday. Gauff’s impressive run in Beijing included victories over Paula Badosa, Yulia Starodubtseva and Naomi Osaka and re-established her as one of the top stars on the WTA circuit.
After Sunday’s win, Gauff revealed why she called in at the last minute to play in Beijing despite her team advising her not to.
“I told my team I wanted to play in Beijing. We were just planning to come to Wuhan. I felt like I needed to play and have fun. I’m enjoying Beijing,” Gauff said on Tennis 365.
The 20-year-old has a new mindset of wanting to play as much as possible, a year after she admitted she took end-of-season tournaments lightly after winning her first major championship at Flushing Meadows.
“I think I won the US Open last year and the rest of the season I said to myself, ‘I want to do well, but whatever – just play and see what happens.’ Then this time it was like: ‘Okay, I didn’t do well.’” “The tournaments I really wanted to do well in were over, so it was kind of like, let’s see what happens here. I always think this part of the season will always be the most comfortable for me.
After beating Badosa in the semi-final, Gauff credited the change in her mentality to her new coaches, Jean-Christophe Forel and Matt Daly, and revealed that the new team is more focused on her development than results. She said that they had “already undertaken an important operation” and would only take further steps in the coming months.
Gauff, who turns 21 in March, is still in the early stages of her development – a fact she acknowledged after winning the China Open. Gauff said her team will continue to be patient with her as they look forward to the upcoming Wuhan Open and possibly a trip to the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia.
