With two WTA 1000 events and the Tour finals still to come, this season is far from over for Coco Gauff, who is already looking ahead to 2026.
The world No.3 will return to action at the China Open in Beijing, where she is the defending champion. Gauff has already reached the final of three WTA events since January, winning the French Open. However, she is yet to play a title match on a hard court this year, which is ironic for a player who has won eight out of her 10 Tour-level titles on the surface.
Gauff last played at the US Open, where she reached the fourth round before losing in straight sets to Naomi Osaka. It is the second year in a row that she has failed to go beyond the last 16 of her home Grand Slam, which she won in 2023. Since then, she has been training in Florida before travelling to Asia.
“I guess the focus is really just building for next year and treating this part of the swing kind of as a pre-season almost, which I did that last year,” Gauff told reporters in Beijing.
“Ended up being successful, so we’ll see. Yeah, I think at this point of the year it’s always just looking at how to get better for next year.”
Besides her triumph in Beijing in 2024, she also reached the semi-finals in Wuhan and won the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia that same year.
However, since then, the 21-year-old has encountered challenges on the court, with the most problematic being her serve. During the summer, she split with coach Matt Daly and appointed Gavin MacMilan to her team. MacMilan is a biomechanics expert who is credited with previously helping Aryna Sabalenka overcome her serving problems.
“I’m still working with Gavin, but he’s not here (in China) because we started last minute so he had other plans for this part of the year,” Gauff explains.
“We’ll be working with each other right when I get home from here. But it was a good learning experience.
“For me it was a tough challenge I think mentally more so than anything just, like, kind of losing trust in a lot of things, trying to find that in that tournament.
“But I really do think that it gives me confidence for the future. I mean, second week (of the US Open) kind of having some really low moments on court.
“So I’m looking forward to now feeling refreshed and happy, feeling like I can trust myself all over again and see how I do with this mindset.”
As for her expectations, Gauff says she isn’t putting too much pressure on herself. Something she admits is easier to do due to her accomplishments earlier in the season.
“It just feels different at the end of the year,” she said.
“Although technically I’m the defending champion, but it doesn’t feel like that at all.
“I don’t want to say ‘not care’ because obviously I’m not playing a tournament and trying to lose or anything. But there is definitely a weight that you kind of just don’t care in a way, especially when you’ve had like a good moment of the season.
“I think winning the French Open helped me take that weight off less. I think last year I did care, but maybe I felt a little bit like I had to do something because I hadn’t won a big title at that point.”
Gauff is bidding to become the first woman to defend their title at the China Open since the tournament was reinstated to the Tour calendar in 2004 as a Tier 2 event. It was upgraded to a Premier Mandatory in 2009.
