After major breakthrough, US Open champ Coco Gauff eyes more hardware in 2024: 'I look towards the next thing'
The American teen sets her sights on more success in 2024 after a year of firsts - including her maiden Grand Slam title in front of a home crowd.
Tennis
What could 2024 hold for tennis star Coco Gauff?
Midway through the 2023 season, the 19-year-old American appeared to be at an inflection point after being knocked out of Wimbledon in the first round for the first time in her career.
Fast-forward two months later and the American became the first teen from her country to hoist the US Open trophy since Serena Williams in 1999, capping a sterling summer that saw her win consecutive “biggest” titles in Washington, D.C., Cincinnati and New York.
The world number three is already contemplating what could be in the coming year, with the sport’s annual four Grand Slams on offer – as well as the Olympic podium at Paris 2024.
“I tend to look towards the next thing,” Gauff said at the close of the 2023 season after being beaten by friend and doubles partner Jessica Pegula in the semi-finals of the season-ending WTA Finals.
She was already eyeing the sport’s short off-season to level up: “[I'm looking] for improvement on how I can do even better,” she told reporters in Cancun at the Finals.
Pegula, Gauff’s fellow American and oft doubles partner, has said the two will look to go for gold at the coming Olympic Summer Games, having finished runner-up at Roland-Garros (the site of Olympic tennis in Paris) in doubles in 2022.
Gauff should like her chances in Paris in singles, too: She is 15-4 lifetime at the French Open and was runner-up to world number one Iga Swiatek in 2022.
Coco Gauff: What will 2024 bring?
Could Gauff become the first player since Naomi Osaka to win the US Open and Australian Open back-to-back next month?
It won’t be easy: Swiatek returned to the top of the world rankings with her victory in Cancun, while the likes of reigning AO champion Aryna Sabalenka, Pegula, 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina and others crowd a talented top echelon of women’s tennis to kick off the 2024 season.
But it’s also set to be a season of comebacks with Osaka returning to the game for the first time in 15 months after giving birth earlier this year. Three-time Slam winner and Rio 2016 silver medallist Angelique Kerber is also back from childbirth, while fellow mums Caroline Wozniacki and Elina Svitolina made impressive comeback efforts in 2023.
Gauff kept a limited schedule post-US Open, making the semi-finals of both the China Open in Beijing and the WTA Finals, losing to Swiatek and Pegula, respectively. She also lost to Swiatek in the round-robin stage of the WTA Finals.
Gauff finished the year without one key member of her team: Pere Riba. Riba – along with Brad Gilbert and Jarmere Jenkins – had stepped into a coaching role for Gauff following that Wimbledon loss to Sofia Kenin.
Riba revealed that he had stepped away due to “personal and family health” reasons.
Gauff had Gilbert, Jenkins and her father, Corey, in her box at the WTA Finals, which could likely be her team headed into the 2024 season.
While most of the big names were either playing in the WTA 500 tournament in Brisbane or the mixed team United Cup event, Gauff successfully defended her WTA 250 title in Auckland.
Gauff keeps it low-key to finish 2023
After her win over Sabalenka in a dramatic three-setter to claim the US Open title, Gauff was swept up in a media tour whirlwind, making a trip to the NFL's Sunday Night Football clash between the New York Giants and Dallas Cowboys, appearing on morning TV in the U.S. on NBC’s TODAY Show, having her image blasted across Times Square in New York and much, much more.
She’s been relatively quiet since, with her two WTA events in Beijing and Cancun to the end the season her only official matches and no major events to speak of otherwise.
She’s stayed busy with her suite of sponsors, however, and took in a music festival (see below) in early November in Los Angeles, where it could have been easy to see her as 'just another face in the crowd'.
She told fans on her Instagram that 2023 “saw my darkest and brightest days of my life”, while adding: “I probably grew enough for 10 lifetimes between January & now.”
How much will she grow in 2024? That’s what we’ll find out – at least on the court – while Gauff is focused on stepping back and understanding the weight of what she’s already accomplished.
“I think we'll have enough time to reflect and be proud of all the things I've done in the off-season," she said in Cancun.
She added, on Instagram: “I’m learning to be nicer to myself... [and] yes I AM proud of myself. I am proud of the resilience [I] showed. They really tried to count me out but it is all in God’s plan.”