Coco Gauff Dissects the Challenges of Changing Surfaces During the Summer

Coco Gauff will face either Danielle Collins or Viktoriya Tomova in her opening round at the Canadian Open, where she is seeded first.

Coco Gauff Dissects the Challenges of Changing Surfaces During the Summer

Coco Gauff at the Canadian Open draw ceremony (image via Jimmie48 Photography)

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Coco Gauff will commence the North American hard court swing with the Canadian Open, where she is seeded first. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is skipping this event due to fatigue. Though Gauff did not have a very good hard court swing in the first quarter of the season, she had a remarkable clay swing, reaching the finals of the Madrid Open and Italian Open and winning her second Grand Slam title at the Roland Garros.

Her grass swing did not see much improvement as she faced an opening round exit at the Berlin Tennis Open and Wimbledon Championships. The 21-year-old now hopes to deliver a strong performance in the hard court swing, where she has previously fared well, especially in 2023 when she won the Washington Open, Cincinnati Open, and US Open. Ahead of her Montreal run, the two-time Grand Slam spoke at the draw ceremony about the challenges of changing surfaces throughout the tour:

The secret lies in all the previous work, both on the court and with my physical trainer in the gym. This on clay still has a very significant effect due to the mobility needed to move well on clay. Tennis forces you to constantly adapt to new situations, so you always have to be prepared for those changes; so now my intention is to repeat the same play and have a good North American swing on cement.

Gauff will face either compatriot Danielle Collins or qualifier Viktoriya Tomova in her opening round match on Tuesday. Other strong contenders for the title include second seed Iga Swiatek, who will be playing her next tournament after her Wimbledon title run, and third seed Jessica Pegula, who is entering the tournament as the two-time defending champion.

Coco Gauff on ‘dream title’ win at Roland Garros

As the reigning Roland Garros champion, Coco Gauff was also asked about her triumph in Paris. The World No. 2 described it as a ‘dream title’. She believes that clay is a surface where she has always felt very comfortable, although she pointed out the irony of having won only one clay court title before Roland Garros, i.e., a WTA 250 title at the Emilia-Romagna Open:

It was a very special moment, a dream title, perhaps also because it is a surface that I have always felt very comfortable on. It’s funny because, before Roland Garros, I had only won one title in my entire career on clay and it was in a minor event, a WTA 250…

Coco Gauff Roland Garros
Coco Gauff (Image via Roland Garros)

A somewhat similar incident took place at Wimbledon this year as well, as Iga Swiatek went on to clinch her maiden grass court title, having not reached any grass court finals before this season either. Their Grand Slam titles this year marked the first title of the season for both Swiatek and Gauff. Gauff, though having won one title on clay previously, also reached another clay court final after that at the 2022 Roland Garros, where she lost to Swiatek. Gauff further added:

Having a title of this magnitude on clay now means a lot; it means achieving that prize after working very hard throughout that swing, having previously lost the finals in Madrid and Rome. Finally, the third time was the charm, it showed me that I was capable of achieving it, of staying there waiting for the moment to come.

After the Canadian Open, Gauff will play at the Cincinnati Open and then the US Open. She will be defending 120 points in Montreal, 10 in Cincinnati, and 240 at the US Open. World No. 3 Swiatek has a good opportunity to surge ahead of Gauff in the WTA rankings, as she will be defending 0 points across these two WTA 1000 tournaments.

Also Read: Andrea Petkovic Snubs Coco Gauff, Calls Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka the ‘Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz’ of WTA Tour