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A season that saw Coco Gauff produce some of the best results of her professional career so far ended with a five-match losing streak, the longest of her young career. The singles World No. 7 had never lost more than three consecutive matches until now, including her career on the juniors circuit.
Gauff's ongoing losing streak began with her 6-7(2), 6-4, 3-6 loss to Victoria Azarenka in a hard-fought quarterfinal at the Guadalajara Open. The 18-year-old then lost all her matches in her maiden appearance at the WTA Finals. Gauff's 2022 ATP Finals started with a loss 6-7(6), 3-6 loss to Daria Kasatkina, before a 4-6, 3-6 loss to eventual champion Caroline Garcia. Her campaign ended with a 3-6, 0-6 loss to Iga Swiatek, which meant that she did not win a set throughout the tournament.
Despite an intense year with double duty in singles and doubles at most of her tournaments this season, Gauff chose to represent the USA in this week's Billie Jean King Cup Finals. The talented teenager lost her only singles match at the BJK Cup, a 6-7(1), 1-6 defeat to Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic, ending her season with five straight losses.
Despite the poor run, Gauff had a season to remember, making both her top 10 and top 5 singles ranking debuts this year. She also became the doubles world No. 1 earlier this year, qualifying for the season-ending championships in both singles and doubles.
"Playing both singles and doubles all season will adversely affect Coco Gauff" - Tennis Hall of Famer Steve Flink
Fatigue most likely played the biggest role in Coco Gauff's losing streak at the end of the season. Gauff has played as many as 104 tour-level matches all season, across singles and doubles, which can be taxing for any player, particularly towards the end of the season.
On those lines, tennis Hall of Famer, Steve Flink, recently shared his belief that the likes of Gauff and American No. 1 Jessica Pegula, who also played a lot of singles and doubles tennis all season, will have to cut back on doubles if they hope to have injury-free singles careers.
"If you play that much singles and doubles, can you really keep up that pace? Are you not going to make yourself vulnerable to injuries in the years ahead? That's something that players that are that good in singles and doubles, as Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff are, have to think about and the priority has to be singles," Steve Flink said on an episode of the Court-Side with Beilinson Tennis podcast.
Gauff has a 63% winning record in singles this season and a 65% winning record in women's doubles, where she won all three of her WTA titles in 2022.
