{"id":166203,"date":"2025-09-24T16:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T16:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/166203\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T16:45:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T16:45:10","slug":"coco-gauff-risks-backlash-as-american-dubs-china-open-a-practice-event-tennis-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/166203\/","title":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff risks backlash as American dubs China Open a practice event | Tennis | Sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coco Gauff<\/a> is heading into Beijing for the China Open with a title to defend but has risked a backlash with her comments ahead of the tournament. The world No. 3 referred to the ongoing tournament as a “pre-season” stop for herself during a press conference just ahead of the competition, a comment that could annoy its organisers given she is the defending title-holder and the event also offers 1,000 ranking points.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, I guess the focus is really just building for next year and treating this part of the swing kind of as a pre-season almost, which I did that last year,” Gauff confessed. “Ended up being successful, so we’ll see. Although technically I’m the defending champion [in Beijing], it doesn’t feel like that at all.” Gauff is the current champion after defeating Karolina Muchova in straight sets during the final. Following one of her toughest losses to Naomi Osaka (3-6), (2-6) in the fourth round of this year’s US Open, she is framing Beijing less as a defence and more as preparation for 2026, having admitted she never felt worse after a loss.<\/p>\n

Despite some criticism for her comments, Gauff was one of the first players on the court to practice for the event. Gauff’s season was a rollercoaster, with highs including her second career Slam at Roland Garros, where she triumphed over Madison Keys and Aryna Sabalenka <\/a>to clinch the title in Paris.<\/p>\n

However, she also experienced lows such as a first-round exit at Wimbledon<\/a>, a defeat against Victoria Mboko in Toronto, and a disappointing performance at the US Open on Ashe after winning the event in 2023.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old’s serve let her down, with double faults accumulating at crucial moments, leading to her parting ways with long-time coach Matt Daly. Gavin MacMillan, who previously worked with world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, and J.C. Faurel have since been enlisted to help get her career back on track.<\/p>\n

At the Australian Open<\/a>, she made it to the quarter-finals but was ousted by Paula Badosa. In Madrid, she reached the semi-finals but was soundly defeated 6-1, 6-1 by Swiatek. In Rome, she battled past Zheng Qinwen before succumbing in the final to Jasmine Paolini.<\/p>\n

Gauff lifted the French Open trophy after defeating Sabalenka in a gruelling final, but then Wimbledon<\/a> saw her exit swiftly in the first round against Dayana Yastremska.<\/p>\n

Her run in Cincinnati ended in the quarters, Toronto in the round of 16 and New York in the fourth round.<\/p>\n

This year in Beijing, Gauff is seeded No. 2 behind Swiatek, just ahead of Amanda Anisimova, Mirra Andreeva, and Jessica Pegula. With Sabalenka choosing not to participate, the draw field has opened up even more.<\/p>\n

Gauff has a first-round bye and will commence her campaign against either Lucia Bronzetti or Kamilla Rakhimova in the second round.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff is heading into Beijing for the China Open with a title to defend but has risked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,3686,106772,18937,85,747,750,12741],"class_list":["post-166203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-beijing","tag-china-open","tag-coco-gauff","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-tennis-news","tag-us-open-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}