Coco Gauff's World No. 2 Rank Under Threat After Shocking Loss To Teenager

Sunday, 03 August 2025 at 16:05

byJordan Reynolds

Coco Gauff's loss to Victoria Mboko at the 2025 Canadian Open was a disappointing moment for her, but the full consequences of that setback might not be felt for another few days.

The French Open champion produced an erratic performance against her 18-year-old opponent, who enjoyed superb support from a packed home crowd in Montreal. Gauff fell 1-6, 4-6, and did not break serve once.

Despite Mboko's impressive display, Gauff does not think the Canadian should be compared to her and emphasized that she is a unique player who will carve out her own successful career in the coming years.

Gauff has been the world No. 2 for over two months after overtaking Iga Swiatek, who slid all the way to No. 8 a few weeks later after failing to defend her French Open title, losing many ranking points in the process.

Swiatek has rebounded spectacularly since. After reaching a maiden grass-court final at the 2025 Bad Homburg Open, which ended in a tearful loss to Jessica Pegula, she enjoyed a stunning run to the 2025 Wimbledon title.

The Pole's good form continued in her opening two matches in Montreal. Clara Tauson, whom Swiatek defeated at Wimbledon a few weeks ago, is her next opponent. They will play on Sunday evening.

When the new rankings are released, Gauff will be on 7,789 points. If Swiatek secures a maiden Canadian Open title, that would narrowly push her above the American to 7,813 points, and back to the No. 2 ranking she lost a few months ago.

Swiatek has to win the title to make that happen. Reaching a first final at the tournament would be a great achievement on its own merit, but she must end as the best player of the event to be the WTA world No. 2 again.

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Aryna Sabalenka remains far ahead of her rivals at No. 1. The Belarusian chose not to compete in Montreal, citing fatigue after an intense season so far, but she still has a massive 12,225 points.

Although that is an outstanding lead, Sabalenka will be defending 3,000 points in the coming weeks from the titles she won at last year's Cincinnati Open and the US Open, giving Gauff and Swiatek a mathematical chance of overaking them.

However, Gauff has no chance of achieving that if she does not improve on her level at the Canadian Open. The defeat against Mboko preceded scrappy performances against Danielle Collins and Veronika Kudermetova, including hitting 23 double faults in the contest with Collins.

Coco Gauff praises Victoria Mboko after losing in Montreal

In her press conference after losing to Mboko, Gauff revealed she felt the match could be difficult because she had not played well in the previous contests and credited the teenager with taking advantage to claim a memorable win.

"Yeah, I mean, it is tough. I knew she would come in with a lot of confidence, and she'd won her first couple of rounds easily. Honestly, I haven't played the best this tournament, so I knew that it would be tough. I don't know, I just felt like I could do better today, but I also knew that if I took my foot off the gas a little bit, that she would take advantage of those moments, and she did."