“I will win French Open 2025,” she scribbled. Then she kept writing, “I will win French Open 2025.” Line after line, eight in total, until the page surrendered to her ink. It was a ritual borrowed from Gabby Thomas, the American sprinter who, during the Paris Olympics, carved intentions into her Notes app each morning. But for Coco Gauff, the script turned cruel. Glory morphed into gloom, grass betrayed her in back-to-back first-round exits, Wimbledon carved heartbreak, and the North American hard-court swing offered no semifinal solace. Now, with the US Open looming, American tennis voices deliver a grim, foreboding verdict on the young champion’s fate.

Coco Gauff’s serving demons roared again under the Mason lights Friday, coughing up 16 double faults in a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 quarterfinal collapse to world No. 9 Jasmine Paolini at the Cincinnati Open. The French Open champion, still reeling after a R16 loss to Victoria Mboko in Canada, saw her last Masters semifinal chance vanish before the US Open horizon. With her hard-court swing now dripping with tension and doubt, former top-10 ace Chanda Rubin stepped forward, voicing concern for the young American star.

At the Tennis Channel desk alongside Lindsay Davenport and CoCo Vandeweghe, former top-10 star Chanda Rubin did not hesitate to reveal who concerns her the most as New York knocks on the door. And, with a heavy tone of honesty, it was Coco Gauff. “I think for me, I’m looking a little bit more at Coco and just to kind of take the other side. Coco Gauff, you know, I think she won Roland Garros. She made a tough transition onto the grass. She figured, you know, tight turnaround. She had a lot of things going on. Didn’t quite get it going there,” Rubin explained, placing her cards on the table.

Her analysis cut deeper as she dissected Coco’s hard-court swing. “Now to start the hard court swing. You know she’s won a few matches. She won some matches here. Didn’t have to play a couple of matches. But I just thought she might be in a little better place. And we saw even with the double faults, she handles it so beautifully,” Rubin noted. Yet the tone shifted, “But we saw her start to get a little bit frayed, get a little irritated, you know, kind of directed at her team here or there. So that for me would be the only concern.”

Rubin’s words carried both respect and unease, as she pressed further into the mental side of Gauff’s game. “How is she feeling? Is she feeling confident? Does she feel like she can work through some tough matches in New York? Does she have enough matches behind her on the hard courts to feel that? So that would be my concern,” she emphasized. 

And yet, she refused to close the book on optimism, adding, “But, you know, certainly she has that ability. She has the athleticism to turn it on, and in New York, she gets such incredible energy. I think that’s going to go a long way for her. But certainly, the game was a little bit frustrating. I’m sure for her here.”

And while Rubin aired her concern with sharp precision, Coco herself responded in her own way. Following her Cincinnati defeat, the world No. 2 admitted that the relentless tennis calendar leaves little room for balance. She voiced that schedules and sessions often work against players, making it impossible to win every match. 

Coco Gauff speaks out on fan pressure after Cincinnati exit

For Coco Gauff, the reigning Roland Garros champion, the latest stumble in Cincinnati adds another scar to a testing summer. The defeat comes on the heels of her Canadian Open exit, where 18-year-old Victoria Mboko stunned her in the R16. Across both events, the search for a semifinal run on home soil remains unfulfilled.

As the stage shifts toward New York, the stakes grow heavier. Flushing Meadows is not just another tournament; it’s the cathedral where Gauff lifted her first Slam in 2023. Now, the US Open represents her shot at doubling that glory, silencing critics, and reclaiming momentum. But with every misfired second serve, questions mount: can she tighten the screws, or will doubts erode her armor?

After her Cincinnati bow, Gauff stood before the press, armed not with excuses but with unflinching honesty. She addressed the weight that comes with Grand Slam success. “When you have a slam now, compared to before my US Open run, it’s a little bit easier the rest of the year. Because now everyone’s not calling your year bad because winning a slam defines if you are having a good year or not, and not the other tournaments as well. It doesn’t just go for me; it goes for all the players,” she declared, her words straddling relief and reality.

Her candor did not stop there. Gauff turned to the suffocating demands of the tour and the misplaced expectations that chase champions. “So for me, I think sometimes, tennis fans want us to win like every week. But we’re playing 11 months. It’s not that easy, so it’s completely normal for a player to have a good 3-4 weeks, then maybe a not-so-good 3-4 weeks just because the way our season is built,” she explained, echoing a truth that resonates through every locker room.

Now, the question lingers like storm clouds over New York: can Coco Gauff tame her second-serve demons, rise above the grind, and rally the hopes of a nation at the upcoming US Open?