Coco Gauff's season has contained some difficult moments. However, that has not stopped her from achieving a feat that demonstrates her consistency during the last two years.
Gauff began 2024 by retaining her title at the Auckland International. After three entertaining sets in New Zealand, she defeated the gritty and determined Elina Sivtolina in the final.
The 20-year-old backed up that success by reaching the semifinal of the Australian Open, losing to the eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka. Despite getting to the semifinals, she did not play her best tennis throughout the event.
Gauff also had a run to the semifinals of the French Open. Unfortunately for the American, she ran into Iga Swiatek, who eventually won the title for a fourth time. It was her 11th loss to the Pole in 12 meetings.
Last year's US Open champion had high hopes of winning at least one medal at the Paris Olympics. She entered the women's singles, women's doubles with Jessica Pegula, and mixed doubles with Taylor Fritz.
Sadly for her American fans, Gauff did not bring home a medal for her country. Her singles loss to Donna Vekic in the round of 16 included some controversy. The 2022 French Open runner-up felt cheated when the umpire did not replay a point after overruling a line call.
The disappointment continued after being knocked out of the women's doubles with Pegula and the mixed doubles with Fritz. The 20-year-old will have more chances to secure Olympic medals in the future, but those were still tough defeats for Gauff.
Since her opening tournament of the season in Auckland, Gauff has not progressed to a final in 2024. Although some of her results have been solid, she hopes to change that statistic soon.
However, Gauff's results have been good enough to complete a rankings achievement that is frankly incredible for someone who was still a teenager until March of this year.
Gauff is experiencing her 100th consecutive week in the Top 10 of the WTA rankings. She broke into the Top 10 on 12 September 2022 and has never fallen lower than that since.
The defending US Open champion was just 18 years old when she first entered the Top 10. Gauff's consistency since then to stay that high in the rankings is outstanding for such a young player and something no one can take away from her.
Right now, Gauff is ranked world No. 2, a career-high, but staying there after the North American hard-court swing will be very tough due to the number of points she is defending.
Gauff lost to her doubles partner Pegula in the semifinals of the WTA-1000 event at the Canadian Open last year. She backed that up by winning her maiden WTA-1000 title in Cincinnati, including getting her sole triumph to date against Swiatek in the final.
The American No. 1 will then defend 2000 points at the US Open in a few weeks. If Gauff does worse than she hopes at those three tournaments collectively, she will lose her spot at No. 2 in the world.
That is far from guaranteed, though. Gauff showed how good she is in home conditions at her best last year and will hope to become inspired again.
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