Coco Gauff is in the mix to win the China Open and defend the crown she won last year.
Gauff had a tense exchange with Belinda Bencic during her latest match in China and came through after trailing by a set and a break at one point.
The 21-year-old looks to be relaxed with Gauff calling the China Open a practice tournament before things got underway at this year’s event.
It’s been a pretty good year for Gauff, with the French Open success the tip of the iceberg back in June.
There has been a drop off since that victory, with a first-round exit coming at Wimbledon and a loss to Naomi Osaka occurring in round four of the US Open.
With the year drawing to a close, talk is already turning towards next year and what might be on the horizon for Gauff.
Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty ImagesCoCo Vandeweghe makes Coco Gauff prediction for 2026
Gauff is one of the most likeable players on the tour, and plenty of people are rooting for her to claim more Grand Slam titles.
Gauff wasn’t happy with Bencic in her latest match, but with the China Open still ongoing for the women, Vandeweghe has now predicted what she might go on and achieve when the 2026 calendar gets underway.
She said in the Inside-In podcast: “With the schedule as it is, where are the couple of weeks to take a break? If you’re an American on US soil you’re going to perform and you want to and that’s something where it’s like this is where the off-season and maybe even, don’t start Asia so soon and you can kind of build that way of, okay, I’m happy to make mistakes because Grand Slams are out and I don’t mind making a few more mistakes in match because that’s where you need to see if the changes, the mistakes, the mental toughness is going to perform under pressure when you’re facing four serving five and you’re like four serving five, that sort of thing you can’t replicate in a practice and as many times you can put yourself in those situations the better you are mentally.
“To me, I’m completely confident in Coco Gauff’s ability to do that, because we’ve seen her do that. Any time someone doubts Coco Gauff, she steps up to the challenge and kicks her doubters to the wayside and digs their grave for them and it’s unbelievable.
“There is something to be said for the character that she has and being able to do it and also myself as an athlete I know what it takes to say, hang on something is right, because we have egos, and we don’t want to change, you think well I’m winning so why should I change, so it’s all credit to her character, it’s all credit to her looking how to change and what to change and I think it’s going to be a more long-term process for her and I think we will see results in Australia because there is not enough time to fix anything now.
“She’s got big tournaments on her mind, she wants to win the year-end championships, she wants to win the 1000 events, so I have the utmost confidence that she will be able to figure this out without a doubt.”
Gauff has to work on her serve
The issue with Gauff is that her serve is just too scattergun at the moment, with far too many double faults creeping into her game.
Gauff has worked on her serve in recent months, but it’s still far from ironed out, and that will be an ongoing situation with her team.
At 21, however, there is far more to come from Gauff, and given how long she’s been on the tour, it’s easy to forget sometimes just how young she is.
It would be great to see Gauff claim more major honours in 2026 and if she can iron out some of the flaws in her game, she could be well on her way towards dominating the sport.