Coco Gauff's comments about her doubles career have fans guessing

Coco Gauff has risen through the professional tennis ranks by playing singles and doubles. Along the way, she has used her doubles matches to perfect her net skills in singles and to spend what would normally be practice time competing in matches.

Early on, she won titles with Caty McNally but her most famous and longest-standing doubles partner is Jessica Pegula. Pegula has been injured for a good portion of 2024 so Gauff has engaged in doubles play with other partners like Taylor Townsend and Erin Routliffe. At the 2024 French Open, she is paired with Katerina Siniakova, and they are in the semifinals.

Siniakova is no stranger to winning doubles Grand Slams. She has seven of them, including two French Open wins. The Czech Republic star was one half of the most famous and successful Czech Republic duo that included Barbora Krejcikova. Krejcikova won both the singles and doubles titles at the 2021 French Open.

Coco Gauff hints that her doubles career could be all but over if she and Siniakova win the French Open

Gauff and Pegula were the 2022 French Open runners-up, and their biggest win was at the 2023 Miami Open, but they have never captured Grand Slam glory. That is clearly on Gauff's career bucket list, and if she and Siniakova win at Roland Garros, she hinted that doubles will not be as big of a priority to her. She did not say she wouldn't play doubles, but winning a Grand Slam would quell the persistent desire to play doubles.

This does not bode well for her doubles future with Pegula. We do know they want to compete in doubles at the Paris Olympics. Before Pegula's injury and Gauff's recent comments, the pair were planning to scale back their doubles play after this summer anyway.

Gauff is taking a page out of Aryna Sabalenka's book. Sabalenka was an accomplished doubles player before focusing on her singles career. Sabalenka and Elise Mertens won two doubles Grand Slams (2019 US Open and 2021 Australian Open) before she pulled the plug on her doubles career.

As physically and mentally demanding as tennis is, it is easy to understand why Sabalenka and now Gauff close the books on their doubles careers at a young age. Fans will miss seeing Gauff on the doubles court, but hopefully, she and Pegula can experience Olympic success this summer. There would be no better way for Gauff to go out than with a Grand Slam doubles title and an Olympic gold medal with Pegula.

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