After hinting at it in the past, Coco Gauff has now officially confirmed that she will not play doubles regularly in the future despite recently winning the French Open.
The young American has been playing doubles since the early stages of her career. It has always been something she has enjoyed, but as her career progressed further, the American played less and less doubles, despite reaching the World No. 1 rank in doubles at one point.
It was a natural decision because she is predominantly a singles player, and focusing on that side of her career makes sense to her. Playing doubles might not be that physically taxing, but it still requires effort and, more importantly, time.
Otherwise, the time could be spent on relaxing, recovery, or treatment, so if she wants to do well in singles, she has to prioritize it. Playing doubles can work for a few weeks, but over long periods of time, the fatigue piles up.
Gauff hinted heavily in recent months that she would stop playing doubles sometime in the future, and now she made the decision. The American is not playing doubles at the 2024 Canadian Open in Toronto.
Because of that, she was asked whether she would be playing doubles in the upcoming events, to which she responded that she wouldn't because it was tough to keep up with that schedule.
"No, I'm not going to be playing doubles. I just, the goal was to try to get as good as possible for the Olympics and then, yeah. Every week, week-in and week-out, I'm making the end of the week, if I'm playing singles and doubles usually I'm there at the semis at least in one event. Yeah, it's just tough to go week-in and week-out on tour, so that's the reason why."
The decision shouldn't really come as a surprise because she has hinted at it, and it makes perfect sense for her, considering her goals and how her career has shaped her.
One of her main goals in her doubles career was to win at least one Grand Slam trophy, and she was able to do that earlier this year at Roland Garros with Katerina Siniakova.
After achieving that, there wasn't much incentive for Gauff to keep playing doubles. She did it at the Olympics in the hopes of winning a medal, but now there isn't much motivation to do so.
She confirmed that she might play doubles sporadically in the future because she enjoys it, but for the most part, she will focus on the singles for now.
"But maybe next year I'll play here and there. I won't be playing doubles as consistently as I have been in the past. Just singles. Yeah, focus on that."
It's not great news for fans of doubles tennis, but it's likely very good news for Gauff's singles career. She is entering a stage of her career in which she will go all out on her singles career, and that should excite her fans.
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