- It has been a tough tournament at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California.
- Eight of the top ten men’s players have been eliminated by the fourth round, and five of the top ten on the women’s side.
- #3 Coco Gauff was the latest to fall as she lost to 58th-ranked Belinda Bencic 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday.
The 2025 tennis season is in full swing, and the hard-court season is coming to a close as players will start to ramp up for the French Open on clay at the end of May.
The BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California has been hard on the top seeds, who have been losing at a tremendous rate. American Coco Gauff, who is ranked third in the world, became the latest as she lost to Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic on Wednesday.
Serve Lets Gauff Down, Commits Eight Double Faults
Gauff, who turns 21 on Thursday, March 13, couldn’t give herself an early present as she made too many mistakes in a three-set loss to Bencic.
The American committed eight double faults as she struggled with her serve. Five of those came in the first set, which Gauff won 6-3. But Bencic, who turned 28 on March 10, stepped it up in the second set, winning 70.4% of her 1st-serve points to take the set 6-3. Bencic, despite battling injuries to her hand and foot, was even better in the final set. She won 83.3% of her 1st-serve points, and broke Gauff at 4-4, despite being down 0-40 in the game. It was a massive win for Bencic, who won the gold medal in women’s singles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
It has been a difficult tournament at Indian Wells if you’re trying to make the best tennis predictions. The top seeds haven’t performed at all. On the men’s side, only second-seeded Carlos Alcaraz and fifth-seeded Daniil Medvedev remain out of the top ten players. For the women, Gauff is the fifth top-ten seed to exit this event.
What Does This Mean for Gauff in 2025?
Overall,it’s just a bump in the road for Gauff, who kicked off 2025 by leading the United States to a win in the United Cup. She won all five matches she played that week, culminating in a straight-sets win over Poland’s Iga Świątek, who is ranked just ahead of Gauff at #2.
Gauff lost in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, and there have been a couple of hard-court defeats in Qatar and Dubai. Her best surface is the hard court, where Gauff is always tough to play because of her aggressive style. But again, it’s early in the year and the 21-year-old from Atlanta has plenty of time to turn things around.
We’ll likely see Gauff next in the Miami Open, which kicks off next week. The American, as well as many others, will have to then switch up their training as clay-court season begins. The French Open is at the end of May, and Gauff has yet to win it, although she has reached the quarterfinals in each of the last four years. She lost in the 2022 final to Swiatek, and again to the Polish star in last year’s semifinal. The world is trying to catch up to Swiatek on clay, as she has won four of the last five French Opens.
But Gauff will be fine, and it’s not like she lost to a bad player. Bencic is getting back to her best after returning to the WTA Tour in October, following the birth of her daughter. She is an Olympic gold medalist, and has been ranked as high as fourth in the world in her career. Gauff will bounce back, potentially in the following weeks in Miami.
