Last month, Coco Gauff revealed her unique perspective on rankings, stating, “It’s not something that I’m like looking or checking every week to see how far I am from it.” Despite holding the world No. 3 spot, she’s prioritizing performance over rankings in 2025. This focus comes after a challenging start to the season, marked by early exits at the Australian Open, Doha, Dubai, and Indian Wells—a stark contrast to her stellar finish in 2024, which included victories at the China Open, WTA Finals, and United Cup. Following her recent loss in Indian Wells, Gauff reiterated that her focus lies on something more meaningful than simply chasing ranking points.
The 2025 Abu Dhabi champion, Belinda Bencic, defeated Gauff, who turned 21 on Thursday, with a score line of 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. With that, the American WTA pro’s poor run continues this year. It also reflects in her struggles with serve. Her Indian Wells’ double faults tally of three rounds stands at 38, the exact number she garnered at the 2024 US Open. However, she’s still got the entire season remaining. And that’s exactly what Gauff is focusing on.
On the eve of her birthday, in an interaction with Roland Garros, dated March 12, she reflected on her goals moving forward. Is No. 1 position one of her goals? Well, the answer is complicated than you think. “Yes and no.” But Why so?
Gauff explained, “I’ve never been a rankings girl. Really, I want to just win Grand Slams. My dad always said, ‘the number, the ranking will come with the Slams’.” So I think for me, I’m looking more at winning Slams. And if I win a Slam this year and don’t become number one, I will be satisfied. I’ll be more satisfied than if I became number one and didn’t win a Slam.”
Simply put, being the top player on the list is something she hardly cares about. “Honestly, it never meant anything to me. I just feel like all the people say it online. And for me, it really means absolutely nothing. I don’t like to look at it. I don’t care,” she added.
Coming back to Slams, it seems she’s really interested in completing “an unfinished business” at the Roland Garros. While she’s failed to give herself a winning gift in Indian Wells, Gauff is determined to lift the trophy in the season’s second major. And this time, she wants to go all out against the reigning Clay court queen, Iga Swiatek.
Coco Gauff has got “unfinished business” with Iga Swiatek at the French Open
The 2024 WTA Finals winner has had a hard luck on the Parisian clay court. Back in 2022, she reached her first-ever Slam final at the French Open. But she found Iga Swiatek in the title clash who denied her a chance to lift her maiden Slam trophy. The former World No.1 and five-time Slam queen dominated her with a score line of 6-1, 6-3.
After succumbing to the defeat, Coco Gauff said, “I think that Iga was just too good today. It’s one of those matches that, yes, I, in some moments, could have played better. But she really didn’t give me anything. Every time I thought I hit a good ball, it wasn’t,” reported Roland Garros website in June 2022. “There is a reason why she’s on a winning streak. I’m just glad that I really tried my best today.”
Then, in 2023, Swiatek broke Gauff’s hopes again to clinch the Suzanne Lenglen Cup. The Pole ousted the American in the QF round. Eventually, Swiatek secured her third French Open singles title, and second consecutive Roland Garros victory, with a dramatic win over Karolina Muchova. Last season, too, Swiatek’s dominance continued over Gauff as she beat her in the SF stage with a score line of 6-2, 6-4.
Gauff, who’s still 3-11 in the h2h tally against Swiatek, believes she will have to overcome the Pole at any cost. Notably, all her three wins against Swiatek have come on hard courts. In short, she’s yet to edge her out on clay. But Gauff’s confident that she’s got the ability to perform brilliantly on the clay court.
Fun fact: Coco Gauff, long heralded as a tennis prodigy, has a history with Roland Garros dating back to her junior days, where she won the girls’ tournament title in 2018.
In the latest interview, she emphasized, “I do think I am a good player on clay. And I know that if I want to win that tournament, I have to probably beat her, most likely.” In Guaff’s own words, “She’s an unbelievable talent, on any surface, but especially on clay. I feel like I have a lot of unfinished business there. And yeah, she’s definitely the number one person to beat when it comes to playing at Roland-Garros.” Will she finally break the ‘Swiatek era’ at the French Open in 2025? Only time will tell.
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