Miami Open 2025- Coco Gauff Eyes Redemption After Indian Wells With a Favorable Draw

“I have the belief that I’m one of the best players in the world. When I play good tennis, I’m hard to beat.” – Coco Gauff sounded quite confident right at the start of this season. And, she backed it up with performance as well, not dropping a single set in the United Cup over her five singles matches. However, after her heroics in Sydney, which helped Team USA clinch the title for the second consecutive time, Gauff’s performance graph dropped significantly! She was defeated in the QF of the AO and then made two early exits in the Middle East swing. Even at the Indian Wells Open, she failed to proceed further after her R16 match against Belinda Bencic. Can she now turn things around in Miami? Well, she has been handed a favorable draw this time. Let’s have a look at her probable opponents through her campaign.

Miami hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for Coco Gauff! She didn’t make it past the R16 in any of her previous five appearances in this tournament. The 21-year-old has a 6-5 record at the venue.

Now this year’s Miami Open is all set to commence on March 18, and the draw of this fourth WTA 1000 event of the year has been released. As things stand, the Top 32 seeds, including Coco, have been handed first-round byes, and all of them will be seen in action in the second round on Thursday and Friday.

Coco is all set to face a Grand Slam champion in the second round. It could be either the 2020 AO champion Sofia Kenin or two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova. Gauff and Kenin currently have an H2H record of 2-2. The World No. 3 has already defeated her 26-year-old compatriot earlier this season at the AO in straight sets. So, Kenin will be keen on revenge! On the other hand, there is Kvitova, who was out of action for a while due to maternity leave. This is her third event since her return.

Kvitova won the Miami Open in 2023, but she currently trails Gauff by 0-1 in the H2H record. Although both Kenin and Kvitova have struggled a bit with their form recently, considering their past records, this second-round match might turn out tricky for Gauff. If she manages to win this match, she could possibly face the Greek star Maria Sakkari in the third round. Sakkari has had a horrid start to her season so far. She has played 13 matches but has managed to win only 4 out of them! A QF appearance at the Linz Open has been her best performance this season. Having said that, we must not forget that Sakkari has a 5-3 lead over Gauff in the H2H record, but what really keeps Gauff ahead in this duel?

Well, the American has been in comparatively better form this year, and she even defeated Sakkari in straight sets recently in the R32 of the Indian Wells Open. What if Gauff manages to secure her second consecutive victory against Maria Sakkari? Well, then she’d most likely be facing Brazilian star, Beatriz Haddad Maia in the fourth round. Even Haddad Maia has a poor win-loss record (2-8) this season and purely on recent form, Gauff will be a clear favorite in that match if it comes about.

So, the road to the QF in Miami looks quite smooth for Gauff at the moment. However, things could get a bit difficult for her from the QF.

She might face number 7, Jasmine Paolini, in the QF. The 29-year-old Italian reached the finals of two major tournaments last year (French Open and Wimbledon). However, Gauff’s 2-0 record over her will put her in the front seat ahead of this potentially epic QF clash. The last time this duo met each other was at the 2023 Cincinnati Open, where Gauff defeated Paolini quite comprehensively by a 6-3,6-2 margin. Can she put up a similar dominating performance against the Italian? Well, time will tell but these two players first have to get there.

If Gauff manages to make it through to the semis, there is a high chance of her facing either Aryna Sabalenka or Elena Rybakina. And, interestingly, Coco has an edge over both these WTA stars in the H2H record. The world number one, Sabalenka, has been one of the most consistent players on the WTA Tour in the last few years. This year, she has already won a title at the Brisbane International and reached two finals (AO and the Indian Wells). So, Gauff would ideally want to avoid facing the Belarusian in the semifinals.

Rybakina’s best performance this season came at the Abu Dhabi Open and the Dubai Tennis Championships. She reached the SF in both of these tournaments. As far as their H2H is concerned, Gauff’s only win against Rybakina came in Toronto in 2022. She was given a walkover in their R16 clash in Dubai two years ago. So, even Rybakina will be keen to avenge her previous defeat against Gauff.

Talking about revenge though, recently we saw another young tennis sensation, Mirra Andreeva beat Aryna Sabalenka in Indian Wells. Prior to that, Sabalenka had defeated her in both of their meetings in 2025. Interestingly, if Gauff makes it to the finals in Miami, she could face Andreeva, who is currently on a 12-match winning streak. Defeating her won’t be easy for sure, if that turns out to be the final showdown. But just to remind the fans, Gauff has a 2-0 H2H record over the-year-old Russian.

If not Andreeva, then Gauff could possibly face Iga Swiatek in the final as well! The American has a horrible 3-11 record against the Pole, but she has managed to clinch a couple of victories against Swiatek in the last few months (WTA Finals and the United Cup). So, Coco wouldn’t mind that encounter.

Can she accomplish the three-peat against the number 2? Last year, Swiatek heaped praise on Gauff by saying, “Coco is also one of the consistent players out there.” However, her consistency has taken a hit in the last few tournaments. Is the young American a bit worried about that?

“It’s not as bad as it seems” – Coco Gauff on her recent slump

Coco Gauff has a win-loss record of 11-4 in this season. She’ll be entering the Miami Open following her 6-3,3-6,4-6 defeat to Belinda Bencic in the R16 of the Indian Wells. After losing the match to Swiss, she admitted that she allowed Bencic to dictate play more than she intended. Quite naturally, Coco was gutted by the loss, but how does she look at her performance so far this season?

“Overall I feel like it’s not as bad as it seems, I guess, start of the year, I did well at the United Cup and lost to Paula fourth round in Australia. Middle East wasn’t a great swing for me. Here I lost 6-4 in the third in the fourth round against a tough opponent who’s coming off a 500 win. Obviously, I wanted to do better, and to have better results, but it’s not something I can crush myself on. I’m trying to do better,” said Gauff.

The World No. 3 recently also admitted that she has learned to accept the highs and lows that come along in an athlete’s life. Although she hasn’t been at her best in the last three tournaments, Coco has all the tools to bounce back. How far do you think she can go at the Miami Open? Share your thoughts in the comments below.