Coco Gauff has learned her projected path in Indian Wells as the American will be hoping to turn the page in the desert and get back in the winner’s circle.
After starting the 2025 season with nine consecutive wins, the American lost her last three meetings – including surprise opening-round defeats at the WTA 1000 tournaments in Doha and Dubai.
In Indian Wells, the American is seeded at No. 3 and will have a first-round bye before likely meeting Emma Raducanu – whom she beat in their lone meeting at the 2023 Australian Open.
Should Gauff make it past Raducanu, she is then projected to meet two-time Indian Wells finalist Maria Sakkari in the third round and No. 13 seed Diana Shnaider.
In the quarterfinal, the locals could be in for a treat if the 2023 US Open winner meets reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys.
If the 20-year-old makes a really deep run and reaches her second semifinal in the desert, her likely opponent would be Aryna Sabalenka and then she could also possibly battle defending champion Iga Swiatek for the title.
Gauff has been working on some things lately and that impacted her performance
After losing to Paula Badosa in the Australian Open quarterfinal, the world No. 1 was also beaten by Marta Kostyuk in Doha and McCartney Kessler in Dubai.
But it should be noted that she has been working on implementing some new things to her game with new coach Matt Daly.
“Being on tour, being a pro on tour, I had to learn to accept, trust the process, trust that when you’re in the middle of working on things, you’re not going to win all the time,” Gauff explained in Dubai.
“Yeah, that’s the hard part of just, like, losing matches when you’re trying to work with something because, yeah, you just have that trust that in the long run those losses will turn into wins.
“For the most part it has worked for me. Immediately after, it does suck.”
Tennis World USA