Coco Gauff now admits she made ‘very last minute’ change to her plans before the French Open started

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Coco Gauff shared how she almost did not play in the women’s doubles at the French Open.

The American had a busy two weeks in Paris as she made it to the semi-finals of the singles event as well as a doubles run.

After suffering a crushing loss to Iga Swiatek who went on to claim her fourth Roland Garros title in five years, the 20-year-old had another opportunity to end her time in the French capital with some silverware.

She did just that as Gauff defeated the Italian duo of Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani 7-6(5), 6-3 alongside Kateřina Siniaková to claim doubles Grand Slam glory for the first time.

Coco Gauff says she was close to entering the French Open women’s doubles event

Gauff tends to play both singles and doubles and most of the tournaments in which she competes.

But she was leaning towards focusing solely on singles at the French Open this season as she aimed to win the second singles Grand Slam of her career. But two days before the major began, everything changed.

“This is my third final, so third time’s a charm. First of all, thanks to Katarina. We decided two days before the tournament to play together,” Gauff revealed in her on court interview.

“It was very last minute and I wasn’t planning on playing doubles. Congratulations to Sara and Jasmine, you’ve had a great tournament. We played against each other in Rome and hopefully we will play against each other in the Olympics.

“Thank you to my team, and Katarina’s dad, it’s been a fun two weeks in singles and doubles. I know it’s been long and we are ready to have fun.”

What was Coco Gauff’s route to French Open doubles glory?

For the first time Gauff teamed up with Siniaková, who already had seven Grand Slam doubles titles under her belt.

They showed no signs of a lack of cohesiveness as they began their campaign with a routine 6-3, 6-0 win against Xu Yifan and Anna Danilina.

Next, they defeated the Czech pair of Miriam Kolodziejová and Anna Siskova for the loss of just two games before dispatching the tenth seeds Wang Xinyu and Ena Shibahara in round three.

Another dominant performance against Nadiia Kichenok and Miyu Kato followed, before coming from a set down to defeat the American duo of Desirae Krawczyk and Caroline Dolehide in the semi-finals. After coming through a tight first set in Sunday’s final, Gauff and Siniaková cruised to victory.