Bit of a stunner, Coco defeated by new mom, Bencic, at Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS — And for the celebration of her 21st birthday, Coco Gauff will have a glass of well, whatever one selects, when she doesn’t feel like celebrating. Which after being eliminated in her third match of the BNP Paribas Open on Wednesday, Gauff does not. 

That she lost to a wildcard, albeit in Belinda Bencic, a wildcard who before taking a maternity leave was ranked as high as fourth, undoubtedly makes the defeat even more distasteful.  Indeed we’ve mentioned this numerous times, every one of the players on either the women’s or men’s tennis tours is superior and is good enough (or bad enough) to win or lose any time out.  Still, Coco’s 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat was a bit of a stunner. 

Playing the first match at Indian Wells on a 70-degree morning—yes, beautiful weather, but rain is forecast for Thursday—Gauff fulfilled the expectations and started well enough, then the serve problems on which she has spent many practice sessions trying to correct showed up again. 

The other American female star, Madison Keys, who at age 30 last month earned an Australian Open victory, fared better Wednesday in the BNP. Keys, in a reverse of Gauff’s fortunes, came back to beat Donna Vekic, 4-6, 7-6, 6-3. 

The men’s matches were scheduled for nighttime at Indian Wells—where fans come as much for the sunshine as for the stars—though that’s not necessarily prime time. It didn’t matter much. Regardless of time, Carlos Alcaraz, ranked No. 3, and the BNP Paribas defending champion, defeated Grigor Dimitrov 6-1, 6-1.

Jim Mora Sr., when coaching in the NFL, famously said when asked about which team would win, “You don’t know, you can’t know, you never will know.” In tennis, we do know that two months ago, Coco Gauff defeated Bencic in three sets at the Australian Open. At the time, Bencic had only recently returned to competition after several months away. 

You assumed by now that Bencic would have improved, and she had. You also assumed Gauff, outranked by only two women, would win once more. Back to Mr. Mora, you don’t know.

“Here,” said Gauff, “ I mean, I lost 6-4 in the fourth round against a tough opponent who’s coming off a 500 win. Obviously, I wanted to do better, want to have better results, but it’s not something I can crush myself on.” 

Gauff was asked about her birthday, which of course always falls during the tournament. “I  really don’t care, I guess, when my birthday is, but I am excited, and obviously I would have loved to be out here [Thursday]. But I’m going to try to either get home tonight or tomorrow just to celebrate with my family.”

Bencic, 28, gave birth to a daughter, Bella, in April 2024. But that has not diminished her desire to be one of the globe’s best in tennis.

“Obviously, I like the work I have put in,” she said. “Yes, for sure, like we were able to do a clean start. It's not easy after maternity leave, you know, to do all the work again. I didn’t have a baby to improve my career. I had a baby because we felt like that’s our purpose in life. That’s what we want. That came at the right time of our lives.”

Navarro, Gauff are on the numbers

INDIAN WELLS — Only a number. So said Emma Navarro, who ranks No. 23 in women’s tennis after Wednesday upsetting Aryna Sabalenka, No. 2.

Only a number. So accepts Coco Gauff about the birthday that Wednesday ended her teenage years.

Tennis is all about numbers. No matter how old you are or how young.

The BNP Paribas Open rolled on as finally, the clouds rolled by. Sunshine in the desert, the Coachella Valley, and success for American women, expected in the case of the birthday girl, Gauff, now 20; probably unexpected with the onetime college star, Navarro.

Emma, 22, only a few months away from an NCAA Championship while at Virginia, won arguably the biggest match of her career, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, over Sabalenka, who in February became a Grand Slam champion with a victory in the Australian Open.

Gauff ranks No. 3, but she’s been the No. 1 star in America since her U.S. Open title in September doing TV interviews and getting a huge spread in Vogue magazine. Despite the glamor and glory, Coco comes at you as unpretentiously as, well, a cup of cocoa.

 In her quarterfinal match Wednesday she blitzed Belgian doubles specialist Elise Mertens, 6-0, 6-2.

“Finally got a win on my birthday, which was great,” Gauff said without emotion. “Yeah, I have nothing to say about the match. It was pretty straightforward, and hopefully, I can continue the good tennis.”

That the numbers seem to be more than nothing, but it’s her opinion that counts.

Navarro, understandably, was more emotional after finishing what might become her breakthrough match.

“Yeah, feeling excited,” said Navarro. “I’ve worked really hard over the years just to get to this point,”  

That hardly separates her from the other dozens of female players. The separation is when that work pays off, as this is much against Sabalenka, the powerful Russian. This time it did.

“I guess I wasn’t comfortable with my ranking,” said Navarro. “There’s not an opportunity for that. When I was younger I played in a way where I wanted to work myself into points and work myself into matches, and kind of just react to what my opponent was doing, kind of take a step back, OK, how are they going to play? But at this level, there is no time for that. You are striking or getting struck.”

She was striking. So was Gauff, although for Coco she scores like it was business as usual. Which is exactly what it turned out to be.

In this numbers game. The American ladies had the perfect ones. Or should that be 6-1?

Gilbert shares in Coco’s victory

So that young lady standing next to Brad Gilbert’s daughter, Zoe, in the photo Gilbert posted, happens to have won the U.S. Open women’s tennis championship, Coco Gauff. 

Neither Zoe nor Gilbert hit a shot Saturday at Flushing Meadows during the tournament, but you understand they were heavily involved in Gauff hitting the jackpot. 

Gilbert joined Gauff’s entourage a few days ago to provide advice, which in any sport — particularly one involving head-to-head competition — can be advantageous.

At 19, remarkably quick, and wonderfully perceptive, Gauff seemed to have everything needed to be one of the greats, except experience. 

Which is where Gilbert came in.

Maybe Gauff rallies to defeat Aryna Sabalenka, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the final if she and her family had never decided to connect with Gilbert. Then again, maybe she doesn’t.

Gilbert, who grew up in the East Bay community of Piedmont, was effective and wise enough as a player to make the quarters finals at both the U.S. Open and Wimbledon. But his fame is not so much for what he did but for what he wouldn’t allow his opponents to do. As emphasized in his book, “Winning Ugly,” it was the mind game where he excelled. 

Don’t get flustered because the guy — or woman — across the net is serving aces. Stay patient. Capitalize on an opponent’s weakness. The tactics helped make Andre Agassi a winner again after he (and his game) hit bottom, and it surely assisted Gauff.

The match on Saturday began all wrong for Gauff, who lost her serve in the first game. The normal boisterous crowd of more than 27,000 at Arthur Ashe Stadium, 99 percent of which was hooting and hollering for Gauff, sensed trouble.

But up in the ESPN broadcast the vibe seemed more positive.

Sabalenka had won the Australian Open, and she hit with decisive power. But almost as if the announcers, all former stars themselves, were flipping pages from Gilbert’s book, they mused about possibilities.

Sabalenka was due to cool off, and Gauff should be heating up. And, of course, that’s exactly what took place.

Sabalenka will climb Monday to the No. 1 position in the WTA rankings, based on season-long results, but as she stood there tearfully at the end, that hardly seemed consolation.

Gauff also cried a bit at the end, but that was as much in relief as happiness. She had been in the headlines for a couple of years now, and she’s made the top.

Not that in other ways she wasn’t already there. Coco knows there’s a world beyond the white lines. When Thursday night her semifinal against Karolina Muchova was delayed by protesters, one of whom glued his shoes to the floor of the upper deck at Ashe, Gauff at first expressed dismay but then pointed out she understood why in a free country like the United States an individual would want to take an unpopular stand.

Brad Gilbert has taken less controversial stands in the game of tennis. The results have helped create champions.