It’s been a combined begin to the brand new 12 months for our April cowl star, Coco Gauff. The reigning US Open champion had a unbelievable run on the Australian Open earlier than taking place within the finals, as Aryna Sabalenka avenged that powerful loss in New York, however Gauff has stumbled a bit since, shedding to Katarina Siniakova within the spherical of 32 in Qatar and to Anna Kalinskaya within the quarterfinals in Dubai (the place she additionally had an prolonged standoff with the chair umpire over a flawed line name—for the report, Gauff was proper—in an earlier match).
In the present day, although, Gauff’s quest for her subsequent huge title begins anew because the BNP Paribas Open—higher know as Indian Wells—kicks off in California. Gauff has a bye within the first spherical, and so received’t take to the court docket till Saturday, when she’ll play the winner of the Clara Burel/Wang Xiyu match. However assuming she wins that, her subsequent huge take a look at would possibly come within the spherical of 16 towards Naomi Osaka (once more, supplied that Osaka, whose return to tennis after a protracted maternity break has been a bit shaky to date, makes it previous 14th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova—no small feat at this level).
If all goes in accordance with seedings, Gauff would nonetheless need to get by Sabalenka once more (their matches and historical past to date have all of the makings of a unbelievable, and long-running, rivalry) with a purpose to sq. off towards world primary, Iga Swiatek, or the defending Indian Wells champion, Elena Rybakina, within the ultimate.
So, can she do it? I imply—have you ever seen her play? In fact she will be able to. On an excellent day, in her finest kind, Gauff stays virtually unbeatable. Of her rivalry with Sabalenka, it’s most likely honest to say that the heavier burden stays on the shoulders of Sabalenka to carry her feelings in test whereas nonetheless swinging for the fences, as is her fashion. However Gauff’s capacity—at a mere 19 years of age—to play the fiercest tennis on the tour whereas remaining virtually ridiculously self-possessed is a factor to behold, and will serve her properly right here.
After that? The sky’s the restrict. “One of many objectives I wrote down on my imaginative and prescient factor, imaginative and prescient observe, in my telephone, was to win a medal within the Olympics,” she mentioned earlier this 12 months, simply earlier than the beginning of the Australian Open. So there’s that—together with the French, Wimbledon, and the US Open all there for the making an attempt.
