Coco Gauff has revealed that she has set her sights on an Olympic gold medal ahead of Paris 2024, as she prepares to compete at the
WTA National Bank
Canadian Open (Omnique Banque Nationale) in Montreal.
Gauff has had a highly successful career so far on both the singles and doubles circuits. The 19-year-old already has four WTA singles titles to her name, having secured her latest one just last week at the DC Open, and is currently ranked at world No. 7.
Meanwhile, Gauff has been ranked as high as world No. 1 in doubles, where she has eight titles, three with Caty McNally and five with
Jessica Pegula.
Gauff suggests she will play less doubles in future
Speaking ahead of her run at the Canadian Open, where she will play in both singles and doubles, pairing up once again with Pegula for the latter, the American revealed that although she enjoys the discipline it will probably become less of a priority as she grows older.
"I'm sure when I'm much older they won't have the same priority. Even now, with Jess, we're playing less doubles than last year. We try to choose our tournaments well. Doubles classification is not a priority. It comes on its own with the good results, I don't really think about it," Gauff said.
However, she stressed that her time in doubles is far from done yet:
"I see myself playing in the doubles Grand Slams most of the time, not all of them probably, but the US Open maybe. That's the one I want to play as much as possible. But honestly, it will depend on how I feel," she added.
Gauff has Olympic gold as target in singles or doubles
Regardless of how important doubles is or isn't in the player's future, Gauff also disclosed her dream of winning Olympic gold ahead of Paris 2024, insisting that she doesn't have a preference for winning it in either singles or doubles.
"Next year I want to play less doubles, maybe after the Olympics. But it's hard now to stop completely, when you have such good results with a player who comes from the same country as you [...] One of my biggest dreams is to win a gold medal. Frankly, I don't care in which competition. A gold medal is a gold medal," she said.
Although a doubles win is just as valuable as singles in the Olympics, Gauff explained that she feels the singles titles hold more weight in Grand Slams.
"On the other hand, it is much better to win in singles in a Grand Slam. What I think is that I will do everything I can until the Olympics so that we can qualify," she added.
Gauff was forced to miss the Olympics in Tokyo two years ago after she tested positive for Covid-19. The 2024 Paris Olympics are set to begin in July next year.