Tennis star Jessica Pegula is already thinking about the next Olympic Games and she has a dream doubles partner in mind. The 29-year-old is one of the best singles players in the world and has also formed a strong doubles pairing with compatriot Coco Gauff.
The American duo are the world’s top-ranked doubles team and have won five titles together in addition to reaching the 2022 French Open final. With 2024 set to be an Olympic year, Pegula wants to go for gold in Paris and wants to do so alongside her current partner – the reigning US Open singles champion.
“We definitely want to play Olympics next year,” the current World No. 5 told Tennis Channel. “I think so, maybe once we get past that we’ll rethink about it but yeah. It’s just gonna happen, so maybe.”
But those who are fans of Gauff and Pegula’s partnership will be seeing less of them together on the court after the Paris Games, as they both plan to focus more on singles play. “Especially with Coco Gauff winning the US Open, you know, I’m sure she’s set on really doing well at the Slams, so we’ll see,” the six-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist added.
“I played like 120 matches like combined with everything. And so yeah next year, I think Coco Gauff and I will probably play less doubles we want to try and focus on singles.” Back in August, a month before winning her first Grand Slam, Gauff spoke of her desire to win an Olympic gold medal and her plans to reduce the amount of time spent on the doubles court after Paris 2024.
“I do see myself playing in the Slams the majority of the time in doubles,” she said. “Probably not every Slam, but maybe the US Open, and that Slam I think is the one that I would prefer to play as much as possible.
“But, yeah, honestly it just depends how I’m feeling. I will say next year I do want to play a little bit less doubles maybe after the Olympics. One of my biggest dreams is to win a gold medal, and frankly, I think it’s one of the things that it doesn’t matter what event it’s in.”
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Pegula and Gauff are both playing in the doubles competition at the WTA Finals in Cancun, but they are in danger of being eliminated. They lost to Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe 6–7(2), 3–6, before Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova defeated 6–3, 5–7, 6–10.
However, if they were to win their final group match against Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva, they would still have a slim chance of reaching the semifinals. Both players have fared better in the singles event so far. Pegula won all three of her group matches and has yet to drop a set.
She booked her place in the semi-finals, while Gauff, who has one victory and one defeat, needs to beat Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova to be sure of a spot in the last four. That match could set up an interesting match against her friend and doubles partner.
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