Top seeds Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula withdraw from 2024 Australian Open Women's Doubles draw with second Burel clash denied

Jessica Pegula will not play Clara Burel for the second time today after withdrawing from the 2024 Australian Open Women's Doubles Draw alongside Coco Gauff where they were slated to face Diane Parry and Burel in their first round clash.

Pegula didn't look herself as she crashed out of the singles draw in the second round to Burel 6-4, 6-2 in the Frenchwoman. While Gauff is set to return in the early hours of Friday morning where she will take on Alycia Parks in an all-American clash for a spot in the second week.

There have been rumours swelling for some time that Pegula and Gauff who were top seeds in this draw albeit having never won a Grand Slam together would break up after the Olympic Games with both at the top of their game in Singles action in particular Gauff who won the 2023 US Open.

It will likely be if that is the case that they will play until the Olympic Games and US Open before moving on as a pairing either with different players or exiting doubles entirely. This was the first chance of the season they would've had to pick up the elusive title. But it seems priorities now differ.

Parry and Burel will now face a simpler task in Tamara Korpatsch and Elixane Lechemia with the latter set to face Oceane Dodin with a great chance to reach the second week in Melbourne for at least one Frenchwoman.