Coco Gauff could become the WTA World No. 1 already in 2025, according to her compatriot and Wimbledon quarter-finalist, Christopher Eubanks.
Gauff already has the experience of being the highest-ranked player on the WTA Tour. In 2022, she became the doubles World No. 1 player, and now, she's eyeing the top spot in singles.
In 2024, she already came relatively close to the World No. 1 position, as she was ranked 2nd in the world for the first time in her tennis career. That happened on June 10th, 2024.
Although she was ranked second, Gauff still trailed the top-ranked Iga Swiatek by nearly 4,000 points, and even though she ended the season as the World No. 3, she is closer to the World No. 1 spot than then.
Entering the 2025 season, Gauff's deficit to the first Aryna Sabalenka is less than 3,000 points, and with the Belarusian player set to lose 2,000 points at the Australian Open, the American player might be closer than ever to the World No. 1 spot in the early months of the 2025 season.
According to her good friend, Christopher Eubanks, Gauff will eventually reach the No. 1 spot, and as he revealed when talking on the Tennis Channel Live podcast, she could already do it in 2025.
"We’ve seen so much greatness from her at such a young age, I think it’s safe to say that she will become world number one. I think although it’s a big points deficit, I think she can do it next year."
Eubanks noticed a clear progression in Gauff's career. In 2022, she first became ranked 4th in the world, even though she ended that season as the World No. 7 player.
The following year, in 2023, she reached her new career high, becoming the World No. 3 player, and in 2024, she made another step closer to the No. 1 rank, becoming the World No. 2 player for the first time in her life.
Now, there is only one more step that she can make, and that's reaching the World No. 1 rank. According to Eubanks, the 20-year-old will continue that gradual progress.
"Not just because of what I’ve seen from her at the end of last year at the WTA Finals, having to go through a gauntlet in order to take that title, but also look at history here."
"Her highest ranking in 2021 was 19, in 2022 it was 4 in the world, in 2023 it was 3 in the world, and in 2024 it was 2 in the world. It’s trending towards progress each and every year. This year was number two, there’s only one place to go from there."
It's true that if Gauff manages to perform as she did at the 2024 WTA Finals and at the China Open and Wuhan Open in the weeks before that, she will be the favorite for all the titles, which would put her in a great spot to challenge also for the top spot.