Coco Gauff and Ben Shelton have been backed to have a successful 2025 season.
The American duo had contrasting campaigns in 2024, after they both achieved their best Grand Slam result in 2023.
They are two of the brightest talents in the game and are aiming to big the next in a long line of great tennis players to come from the United States.
Former WTA player Andrea Petkovic thinks 2025 will see Ben Shelton and Coco Gauff take their respective games to the next level.
What does Andrea Petkovic predict will happen to Ben Shelton and Coco Gauff in 2025?
Shelton won another title in 2024 and reached a career-high ranking of number 13. Gauff on the other hand, enjoyed a solid start and end to 2024, which included winning the WTA Finals in Riyadh.
However, she endured a torrid summer of results at Wimbledon, the Paris Olympic Games and the North African hard court swing concluding with the US Open.
Shelton, 21, and Gauff, 20, learnt some valuable lessons over the past year, and Petkovic expects them to be a significant threat next year.
“I have two players I really look forward to this season in 2025. On the men’s side it is Ben Shelton,” the German told The Rennae Stubbs podcast. “I think he will mature and be a real contender to take out favourites in major tournaments.
“I am also very excited for Coco Gauff’s 2025 season because I really liked what I saw at the end of the year with the coaching change and the freaking grip change in the middle of the season on her serve!”
What does Andrea Petkovic want Ben Shelton to improve in 2024?
Shelton burst onto the scene in 2022 after foregoing his final year of college to turn professional.
It is a decision that has paid off as he is comfortably ranked inside the world’s top 25 and possesses one of the biggest serves in the sport.
But as he continues to refine his game, Petkovic has outlined exactly what she wants to see Shelton work on ahead of the 2025 season.
“I’m excited because I think he is very talented and this year I commented on a lot of his matches in the beginning of this year and they drove me insane,” she said.
“There was zero structure or brain or anything. But at the end of the season I really think I saw a development, so I am really excited for his tennis.
“I think what made him really dangerous before he was playing well before he got a bit more structure on it, where he was also the dumbest player ever, where he was tight he would just go bigger. He would go two serves at 160mph.
“He would play serve and volley on the first serve because he has balls. He is crazy but in a great way. If he just gets a bit more structure, those balls will get him a long way.”
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