Coco Gauff has high expectations of herself for the upcoming clay season, naming Roland Garros as her goal.
As one of the best players in the world, it's pretty normal for Gauff to have high expectations. The American has always had high expectations of herself, but it's only recently that she started to play on a high enough level to make them a reality.
The US Open win last year is certainly a catalyst, even though the 20-year-old has failed to match that level so far this year. Clay has been a good surface for her historically, as her speed is a major weapon against most players.
She has stood in one Roland Garros final before and hopes to get there again, as she revealed ahead of the 2024 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
"I think clay and hard are definitely my favorite surfaces. Again, I can play well on all of them depending on how I show up to a tournament, honestly. But for the clay court season this year, I'm really optimistic. Obviously the goal is to win French Open, but that's every season of any top player. I mean, your goals should be to try to win the big tournament."
The French Open is a few weeks away, and there are a couple of events before the clay-court major. She's in Stuttgart this week and wants to do well and hopefully win that event before turning her focus to Paris.
Ultimately, for her and many other players, everything they do is with the intention of doing well at the French Open.
"But I'm not looking at French Open right now. I'm focused on Stuttgart. You know, I want to win, try to win Madrid or Rome or here, just because I can't remember -- the last time I won a clay court title was, like, a couple years ago if I'm not mistaken, so I kind of just want to get a recent clay title under my belt. So any of the ones along the next couple weeks would be nice."