Is Coco Gauff prepared to defend her US Open title?

Coco Gauff made a shock second-round exit at Cincinnati ahead of US Open title defence.

Coco Gauff crashed to her fourth straight exit before the quarter-final stage at the Cincinnati Open 2024. The World No. #2 American last did so when she reached the semifinals at the Ladies Open in Berlin in June. The Cincinnati Open defending champion lost to Kazakh Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in their second-round match on Thursday in just under two hours.

Gauff’s run of misfortune began at Wimbledon (lost in the 4th round to Emma Navarro), Paris Olympics (lost in the 3rd round to Donna Vekic), Toronto (lost in the 3rd round to Diana Shnaider), and most recently Cincinnati (lost in second round to Putintseva).

It is the second straight event in which Putintseva has claimed a high-profile victim. She accounted for World No. #1 Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon in their third-round face-off. Putintseva fought back from a set to beat Great Britain’s Harriet Dart in the opening round before knocking out Gauff while trailing 4-2 down in the deciding set.

Gauff, the second seed at Cincinnati, has yet to reach a second final or win another title this season since defending her 2023 ASB Classic in January. The string of losses is cause for worry as the US Open is just over a week away. It was at Flushing Meadows last year that Gauff defeated Aryna Sabalenka to pick up her maiden Grand Slam title.

The momentum that propelled Gauff to the US Open trophy is missing as she stumbled to her third consecutive defeat to a player outside the WTA Top 20. Heading into the US Open last year, Gauff had picked up title wins at Washington and Cincinnati and was a quarterfinalist at Montreal. The prospect of defending two significantly important titles means added pressure, and it appears to have got the better of Coco Gauff.

It will be okay for Gauff to acknowledge that turning up to play her best tennis consistently is a big ask, and peaking in the US Open fortnight is all that should matter for the young American.

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