Coco Gauff wasn't initially supposed to play doubles at the 2024 Roland Garros, but she signed up and won her first match with her new partner.
The 20-year-old American generally plays doubles with compatriot Jessica Pegula, but she's been out of tennis for over a month after suffering an injury during her clay preparation.
There's not much information about when she'll be back, but according to reports, she's close and should come back on grass in the coming weeks. In her absence, Gauff partnered with Erin Routliffe and played superbly well, making the final in Rome.
She did not initially seem interested in playing doubles in Paris after Pegula withdrew, but she ultimately signed up to play with Katerina Siniakova.
This is a pairing we haven't seen before, but they shared the court together because Katerina Siniakova played for a long time with Barbora Krejcikova. Gauff would have ideally wanted to play with Pegula because they will play on these very courts later this year at the Olympic Games, so some practice time would have been nice.
That wasn't possible, and so she and Siniakova played their first doubles match together as the fifth-seeded team. It was the second time Gauff was on the courts on Sunday afternoon after winning her singles match earlier.
Like her singles match, her first doubles match proved to be quite simple as they faced Anna Danilina and Xu Yifan, who are not as good in doubles as Siniakova and Gauff.
These two are some of the best doubles players in the world, as they both were number one in the WTA Rankings in doubles in the past. The match was relatively simple.
The first set went 6-3 to the American-Czech combo, with the second set even more impressive. It was a bagel as they outplayed their opponents, winning the set 6-0.
It was a great first match for this combo, which is good enough to go all the way, something Gauff failed at before in doubles at majors.
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