Coco Gauff will hope to bounce back quickly after suffering an early exit at the Madrid Open.
Gauff, the world number four, defeated Leolia Jeanjean and Sorana Cirstea before losing to Linda Noskova in three hard-fought sets.
The American has since travelled east to Rome, where she will compete in the Italian Open for the seventh time in her career.
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Gauff performed superbly at last year’s event, reaching the final before losing to Italian star Jasmine Paolini.
As a consequence, Gauff has a large amount of WTA ranking points to defend at this year’s event.
Coco Gauff is at risk of falling outside the WTA top-four in Rome
With 650 WTA ranking points to defend at this year’s Italian Open, Coco Gauff will need to perform well – or risk falling out of the WTA top four ahead of the French Open.
Gauff, the world number three, currently has 6,749 WTA ranking points to her name.
The 21-year-old is 613 points ahead of Jessica Pegula in the world number five spot, and 764 ahead of Amanda Anisimova – the world number six.
WTA top 10
- Aryna Sabalenka – 10,110
- Elena Rybakina – 8,555
- Iga Świątek – 6,948
- Coco Gauff – 6,749
- Jessica Pegula – 6,136
- Amanda Anisimova – 5,985
- Mirra Andreeva – 4,181
- Jasmine Paolini – 3,722
- Victoria Mboko – 3,531
- Elina Svitolina – 3,530
Therefore, if Gauff suffers an early exit in Italy, she could be at risk of losing her number four ranking ahead of Roland Garros.
If Gauff were to exit from Rome early, Pegula and Anisimova would be perfectly poised to capitalise.
Pegula is defending only 65 ranking points at this year’s event, while Anisimova is defending 10 after being knocked out in her opening match at last year’s event.
Should Pegula or Anisimova go on to win the title, Gauff could fall to world number five or six.
Doing so would undoubtedly damage Gauff’s chances of defending her Roland Garros title as she would be drawn against a top four seed in the quarter-finals, rather than the semi-finals.
Coco Gauff’s Italian Open debut
In 2020, Gauff played her first match in the Italian Open main draw.
In the first round, Gauff defeated future Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur 6-4, 6-3.
“Definitely happy to get a win today, especially after a couple of tough losses back in New York,” Gauff told reporters afterwards.
“I’m just happy to be playing. I think Ons played great today. She’s a tricky player, because she definitely changes the ball a little bit, so I knew it was going to be tough. So to get a win over her on clay is definitely really good.”
Gauff’s campaign was ended by two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza. The Spaniard defeated Gauff 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 before going on to reach the semi-finals in Rome.
Simona Halep, who defeated Muguruza in the last four, won the title after Karolina Pliskova’s mid-match retirement in the final.
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Since 2020, Gauff has reached the third round and semi-finals twice respectively, and the final on one occasion.
