US star Coco Gauff talks about everything related to tennis and preparing for the Olympic Games
Coco Gauff stops by to talk about representing the United States at the Olympics and discusses her partnership with UPS.
The four Grand Slams are getting bigger every year, but probably no other event has changed the course of the tennis season more than the Olympic Games in Paris.
It wasn’t just that 37-year-old Novak Djokovic finally won the gold medal that had long eluded him, or that women’s No. 1 Iga Swiatek crumbled under the pressure of playing for Poland on the same red clay court on which she had been untouchable for the past three years.
Each Olympic tournament disrupts the normal rhythm of the tennis season. Those who already have a 10-month schedule of major tournaments ahead of them that strain the body and mind not only have to choose another stressful event, but also face the additional hurdle of quickly switching from grass back to clay and then immediately onto the North American hard courts in the run-up to the US Open.
It’s a small sample size, but the results from the last few weeks in Cincinnati and Canada suggest that Olympians returned physically and emotionally exhausted, while those who skipped Paris are heading to the Open in better shape. And then there’s Djokovic, who is seeking his 25th Grand Slam title and hasn’t played since his monstrous 7-6, 7-6 win over Carlos Alcaraz in the gold medal match.
These dynamics have enabled a fascinating tournament in New York that could see chaos and surprises in the early rounds. Here are five things to know about the draw, announced Thursday afternoon ahead of Monday’s opening round matches.
Coco Gauff’s problems in the summer
As hot as Coco Gauff was when she entered the US Open a year ago and eventually won her first Grand Slam title, her 2024 season was confusing and disappointing. Although she reached the semifinals at the Australian Open and French Open, her effortless progress against relatively weak opponents perhaps masked some fundamental problems in her game and confidence. Since being crushed by Emma Navarro in the fourth round at Wimbledon, Gauff has suffered early losses to Donna Vekic at the Olympics, Diana Schnaider in Canada and Yulia Putinseva in Cincinnati.
Now she needs to find her form again, facing pressure from the defending champion in New York. The draw hasn’t helped her. Vavara Gracheva is a difficult first-round match, Elena Svitolina is potentially a tough opponent in the third round, and she may have to beat both Navarro and recent Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova to even make the semifinals. If Gauff doesn’t win a few rounds, she risks falling out of the top five. Will the New York atmosphere inspire her to get back to her best, or intimidate her?
Doping scandal overshadows men’s draw
The news this week that world number one Jannik Sinner tested positive for the banned substance clostebol twice in the spring and was provisionally suspended for much of the year while the appeal was pending – only to be cleared of any wrongdoing by the International Tennis Integrity Agency – came as a shock to the sport.
Almost immediately, several players took to social media to allege that double standards and preferential treatment had been sought in this case. Former Wimbledon finalist Nick Kyrgios called for Sinner to be banned for two years.
Sinner, who won the Australian Open earlier this season, his first major tournament, was able to successfully argue that traces of the steroid entered his body via his personal physiotherapist, who had used a spray containing the drug – which is available over the counter in Italy – to treat a wound on his own hand. The ITIA essentially accepted the claim that Sinner, who had lesions on his body due to a skin disease, had traces enter his body when he was treated by the physiotherapist without gloves. Nevertheless, Sinner was stripped of ranking points and $325,000 in prize money for his semifinal appearance in Indian Wells, where the positive test had surfaced.
How Sinner handles the release of this news and how the fans in New York react to him will be a big topic to follow as he battles his way through a difficult draw that includes possible meetings with American Tommy Paul in the fourth round, Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals and Alcaraz in the semifinals.
The draw for the women could be crazy
The lack of consistency in the women’s singles this summer suggests it could be a repeat of 2021, when qualifier Emma Raducanu came out of nowhere to defeat an equally out-of-nowhere Leylah Fernandez in the final.
Gauff is not up to it at the moment. Swiatek has been a disappointment in the majors in recent years, apart from the French Open. Elena Rybakina cannot stay healthy. Jessica Pegula, who is in good form at the moment, has never made it past a Grand Slam quarterfinal. The only top player who is really confident going into the round is last year’s finalist Aryna Sabalenka, who won the title in Cincinnati last week but had problems for a while before that.
There’s the potential for some real upsets: Naomi Osaka against No. 10 seed Jelena Ostapenko, Wimbledon and French Open finalist Jasmine Paolini against 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, Raducanu against former Aussie Open champion Sofia Kenin, and Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen against recent Canada finalist Amanda Anisimova. If you like upsets, the first few rounds here could pack a punch and change the entire character of the tournament.
How will Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz come back emotionally?
Djokovic has been basking in Olympic glory for a few weeks now and has celebrated several times in Serbia. But how hard has he been training physically – and, frankly – how important is this US Open to him after achieving the last major goal of his incredible career?
He may need to be on top form from the start, with the strong-serving Jan-Lennard Struff no easy second-round prospect and potential third-round opponent Alexei Popyrin having given Djokovic a tough time in the past and brimming with confidence after his surprise title win in Canada. A possible fourth-round clash with an American – either 13th seed Ben Shelton or 20th seed Francis Tiafoe, who seems to have rediscovered his form of late – looms as a tantalising test.
Alcaraz, meanwhile, returned to Cincinnati after his bitter disappointment at the Olympic defeat and played what he considered to be the worst game of his career, losing early on to 37-year-old Gael Monfils.
Was that just a coincidence? Was he rusty after a post-Olympics vacation? Or did the emotional toll of winning the French Open and Wimbledon, followed by the Olympics, take too much out of him as the season drew to a close? Alcaraz could also be tested early in New York by Denis Shapovalov in the second round, rising Brit Jack Draper in the third round and American Sebastian Korda in the fourth round.
Are Djokovic and Alcaraz on a collision course for the final again or will they fall victim to a long and grueling season that has thrown the men’s tournament into chaos?
Remember this name: Learner Tien
Although the American men will likely finish their 21st consecutive year without a Grand Slam singles title, the top 50 rankings these days are full of good players representing the Stars and Stripes. And next week we could be introduced to another player: 18-year-old Learner Tien from Irvine, California.
Tien, the son of Vietnamese immigrants, reached two junior Grand Slam finals and won the USTA Boys’ National Championship for 18-year-olds at just 16 years old. Since turning professional, he has worked his way up the rankings, winning some lower-level ITF tournaments and a Challenger Tour title in July. At the ATP level, he is currently in the quarterfinals of the Winston-Salem Open, with wins over No. 49 Fabian Marozsan and No. 69 Thiago Seyboth Wild.
Tien, who entered the US Open as a wildcard, faced Frenchman Arthur Fils, ranked 24th and also an up-and-coming young player. This is a first-round match to keep an eye on. And if Tien advances, he might have a chance to catch up a bit and become something of a household name in the tennis world.
Follow Dan Wolken on social media @DanWolken
