Coco Gauff says one of her 'biggest dreams' is Olympic gold as she reveals doubles plans ahead of Paris 2024
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Updated 20/03/2024 at 16:11 GMT
Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula have not only been been one of the most successful women's doubles teams over the last few years, but both have also continued to impress in singles. Gauff has her sights on winning gold at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and says she might play less doubles after that event. Pegula has confirmed they will "balance out" the doubles moving forward.
'Super happy' Gauff 'heading in the right direction' after Washington title
Coco Gauff says one of her “biggest dreams” is winning Olympic gold and has revealed she might scale down on playing doubles with Jessica Pegula after Paris 2024.
Americans Gauff and Pegula have won five doubles titles together, along with reaching a Grand Slam final, and have reached No. 1 and No. 2 in the doubles rankings.
Their continued partnership is a rarity on tour as few players ranked as high as they are in singles – Pegula is world No. 3 and Gauff is world No. 6 – also play doubles regularly.
Gauff says they are now trying to “pick out tournaments a lot better” but are not going to be giving up on doubles, especially with the Olympics less than a year away.
“I do see myself playing in the Slams the majority of the times in doubles,” she said at this week’s Canadian Open, where she is playing doubles with Pegula.
“Probably not every Slam, but maybe US Open, and that Slam I think is the one that I would prefer to play as much as possible.
“But, yeah, honestly it just depends how I'm feeling. I will say next year I do want to play a little bit less doubles maybe after the Olympics, but it's tough right now I feel like to just stop playing completely when you are doing well with someone who is from your same country, which you don't see that in a lot of teams.
“One of my biggest dreams is to win a gold medal, and frankly, I think it's one of the things that it doesn't matter what event it's in. A gold medal is a gold medal, where I feel like the Grand Slams is definitely way cooler to win a singles one than a doubles one.
“That's probably my thinking, that at least through the Olympics I want to try my best to stay ranked high enough so we can qualify.”
Gauff missed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after testing positive for Covid-19.
Pegula played doubles at the Games alongside Bethanie Mattek-Sands and made the quarter-finals.
Pegula says playing doubles at events provides “extra motivation” and keeps her and Gauff on their toes.
“You don't usually see a lot of players playing, but for us I think we enjoy it, and we use it as a chance to get better in singles as well.
“To us it's kind of fun that we get to go out and even if we lose singles or whatever happens, go out and it's another chance to compete. It's another chance where we want to win.
“Once you get out there and you're in the moment and you want to win the match, it all kind of feels the same. So I think for us it's more like extra motivation, and I think it keeps us in that competitive mindset of, ‘OK, we're still in these pressure moments even if it's doubles, and we still want to win the match, and we still want to get better’.
“I know she's [Gauff] told me she really wants to win a medal next year, and she really wants a Slam, so that's kind of what we're working towards. I think you have to play other events if those are your goals.
Gauff came into this week’s WTA 1000 on Montreal on the back of her biggest career title at the Citi Open in Washington DC.
Pegula describes Gauff as “like an Energizer Bunny” – “she's, like, yeah, I'll play whenever, one every day, it doesn't matter, three time a day, I don't care” – but says they will “balance out” the doubles moving forward, having not played together at the Citi Open.
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Jessica Pegula is ranked at No. 3 in the singles rankings
Image credit: Getty Images
“We already have had a great year, so I think that was kind of our decision not to play DC even though it would have been fun to play in the US in Washington.
“Going into the next two weeks, two 1000s, we kind of would rather prioritise that just as far as our ranking and the race to the finals. I think we were kind of we don't really have to play this week.
“If there are weeks like that, I think we'll always think about not playing unless we really, really want to or need extra matches. But, yeah, we'll just kind of balance it out.”
Gauff and Pegula are currently the No. 1 team in the season-long Race to the WTA Finals rankings.
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