Ahead of the Paris Olympic Games, very few would have expected Coco Gauff to return empty-handed from the Games. To maximize her chances of a medal, the American sensation participated in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. However, she faced crushing defeats in all of them. Particularly in women’s doubles, Gauff and her partner, Jessica Pegula, were hot favorites to win the gold. Once a top-ranked pair, they lost in the second round in the match tiebreaker. Following this setback, Pegula made an honest revelation about the team’s future prospects.

After a disappointing end to her Olympics run, Gauff hinted about focusing more on her singles game over doubles. As a result, she did not play in the doubles competition at the Canadian Open. On the other hand, Pegula wants to keep playing both singles as well as doubles. With Gauff not there, Pegula had to find a new partner in the form of Giuliana Olmos for the tournament in Toronto.

While this may be a temporary pairing for Pegula, with Olmos’ regular partner Alexandra Panova not playing in Toronto, the American star was asked about her future doubles partnership during the post-match press conference. She said, “She has a partner that she usually plays with who just couldn’t come this week, so she will be back with her. Then, for me, I’m not sure. I know Coco doesn’t really, isn’t interested in playing, or at least I’m not, we’re not thinking of playing, so I probably will take it easy on the doubles the rest of the year, so, yeah, we’ll see.“

Interestingly, it was Desirae Krawczyk who set up the team of Pegula and Olmos. Krawczyk had initially asked Pegula if she could partner with her for the Canadian Open. However, her regular partner, Caroline Dolehide, decided to play at the tournament at the last minute, and Pegula was left without a partner.

Subsequently, Krawczyk suggested that Olmos was also looking for a partner and asked Pegula if she could partner with her. The pair went on to reach the quarterfinal, losing against Krawczyk and Dolehide earlier today.

Meanwhile, Gauff’s campaign at the Canadian Open too came to a close with a defeat against Diana Shnaider. Although she didn’t play doubles here, Gauff hopes to play doubles at the US Open.

Not the end of the road for Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula?

While the two dominated the doubles circuit last year and even went on to achieve the top spot in the doubles rankings, things have gone south this year for the team. Nonetheless, Gauff still believes that they can win tournaments and hopes to play with Pegula, mainly at the Slams.

Last year, during an interview, Gauff revealed, “I do see myself playing in the Slams the majority of the times in doubles. Probably not every Slam, but maybe US Open, and that Slam I think is the one that I would prefer to play as much as possible. I will say next year I do want to play a little bit less doubles maybe after the Olympics, but it’s tough right now I feel like to just stop playing completely when you are doing well with someone who is from your same country, which you don’t see that in a lot of teams.“

With singles her top priority, it’ll be interesting to see if Gauff plays doubles at the US Open. Do you want to see her play both in singles as well as doubles? Let us know in the comments below.