“I Lost First Round Wimbledon! ”: Ahead of the Rogers Cup, Coco Gauff says she hopes not to play the Cincinnati Masters

Ahead of the Rogers Cup, Coco Gauff says she hopes not to play the Cincinnati Masters: “I lost first round Wimbledon! ”

Coco Gauff has had a hectic schedule in recent months, playing three tournaments back-to-back. There is all set to be a fourth one too, with the Rogers Cup as the women’s events will begin on Wednesday. 

Gauff recently won the Mubadala Citi Open women’s singles event in Washington D.C. on Sunday, defeating Maria Sakkari in the final. The American youngster is all set to also play in the women’s doubles event with billionaire tennis heiress from the United States, Jessica Pegula again at the Rogers Cup.

As a result, Gauff admitted in a press conference that she might opt to skip the Cincinnati Masters should she advance to further rounds in Canada in both events. The Cincinnati Masters will begin on Saturday, August 12 this year. Why Coco Gauff Might Not Feature At the Cincinnati Masters Coco Gauff was asked about the ways in which she manages her schedule as arguably no other player has played more than her recently.

Lightheartedly, Gauff responded by taking a dig at herself, reminding all that she was knocked out of the first round of the women’s singles at the Wimbledon 2023 Championships, which was in early July. She did make it to the Round of 16 though, of the women’s doubles event with Pegula. Gauff revealed that it was part of her strategy to not play doubles at the Citi Open since she solely wanted to focus on the singles event.

She has opted to play in both the events at the Rogers Cup, mainly since Pegula and she had won the doubles title last year in Canada. Additionally, to cut down on the travel and training, Gauff feels that doing well at the Rogers Cup might help her save that and be mentally fresh for the US Open 2023 competition in New York City. 

“I mean I lost first round Wimbledon so I had a lot of energy to be honest to play for DC (Washington Open). I didn’t play doubles that week. I am playing doubles this week with Jess (Jessica Pegula). I wanted to play both this week because, you know obviously, if this week goes well, which I hope it does, then you know Cincinnati could be up in the air because then that would be like three tournaments back to back to back. But if not, I’ll play Cincinnati.

It’s just I wanted to play in this tournament (Rogers Cup) and also Jess and I won this last year.” Being a WTA 1000 event, Gauff feels that the Rogers Cup has intense competition this year, which can make her test her skills and match toughness. Having recently won a WTA 500 event, which is the biggest win of her short career so far, has given her a lot of confidence. 

Doubles not a priority for Gauff? When it comes to doubles, Coco Gauff has admitted that she would only like to play with Pegula in a few high-profile competitions, with the US Open being her favorite for the same. Gauff is one player on the WTA Tour who is admirably in the top 10 of the world rankings in both singles and doubles event.

While she is ranked 4th in doubles, Gauff surprisingly claimed that doubles is not her biggest priority at the moment although she is targeting a gold medal at the Olympics 2024. 

Gauff and Pegula’s first match at the Rogers Cup will be Aldila Sutjiadi and Miyu Kuto on Wednesday on Court 5. The duo have already won two big titles this year, one at the Qatar Open and the other at the Miami Masters.