Gauff can’t waste Open energy on odd-format doubles

Coco Gauff admitted she just doesn’t have the mental and physical bandwidth to pay attention to the freakishly scheduled US Open mixed doubles event which is set to take place over two days even before the start of the major.

The second seed at the Cincinnati Masters who advanced to the third round on Sunday 6-3, 6-2 over Wang Xinyu explained her priorities.

The oddball experiment seeks to draw singles players into the mixed draw with a lure of a USD 1 million prize for the winning pair.

But the event will be staged during the days before the actual tournament – prime time for top players, who also have multiple sponsor PR duties to fulfill while preparing for the Grand Slam which starts on August 25.

“The free week is already packed for me for sponsor things. If I were to lose, I would not be happy. 

“So I didn’t want to waste mental energy on that; I just knew it wasn’t going to work out for me with the scheduling-wise.”

The 2023 Open champion added: “I think it’s going to be an exciting two days. I’m not knocking it off for the future. 

“But I like to plan my sponsor weeks like a year out, sometimes a
year and a half out.

“When this whole thing was coming up, I was already booked and busy.”

Main photo:- Coco Gauff won Roland Garros 2025 – by Roger Parker ISF Ltd