America’s highest-ranked tennis player says her decision not to take part in the revamped mixed doubles event at the US Open later this month is partly due to prior commitments.
Coco Gauff is one of the most high-profile absentees from the list of entrants for the event, which will take place a week before the main draw begins at Flushing Meadows. 14 teams have entered into the event, which will take place on Tuesday, Aug. 19, and Wednesday, Aug. 20, at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz, Jack Draper, Jessica Pegula, Iga Swiatek and Emma Raducanu are among the players taking part. The winning team will earn $1M in prize money.
However, Gauff will not be playing despite her doubles credentials. The 21-year-old is a former world No.1 in doubles and won the French Open title last year alongside Katerina Siniakova. More recently, she claimed her 10th WTA title in doubles at the Canadian Open.
“For me, it was just because I know the free week of the US Open is already packed for me, for sponsor things, and it was just like a whole other thing. And I’m very competitive; if I were to lose, I would not be happy. So, I didn’t want to waste mental energy on that,” Gauff told reporters at the Cincinnati Open.
“Then on top of the sponsor stuff, the pre-week, and then knowing that this finished on Monday and potentially having to play on Tuesday. Well, you would have to play on a Tuesday. So I just knew it wasn’t going to work out for me, scheduling-wise,” she added.
Despite not taking part, the world No.2 has given her full support to the event and isn’t ruling out the possibility of playing it in the future.
“I think it’s cool, and I think it’s going to be an exciting two days, and not knocking it off for the future. It’s just that I plan my sponsor weeks literally like a year out, sometimes a year and a half out. And when this whole thing was coming up, I was already booked and busy,” Gauff commented.
Gauff kicked off her campaign at the Cincinnati Open with a 6-3, 6-2 win over China’s Wang Xinyu despite producing eight double faults. She will play 32nd seed Dayana Yastremska in the next round.
