Coco Gauff celebrated her 20th birthday in style, with a win over Elise Mertens in the fourth round at Indian Wells.

It was an easy win for Gauff, who won 6-0, 6-2. She won 84% of her first serves and six of eight breakpoints. After the match, she told the Tennis Channel that it was one of her better matches since the Australian Open. 

"Today was one of my best matches since the Australian Open," Gauff told the Tennis Channel. "I was definitely trying to be aggressive. That just made the difference. I don't think she felt she could step in on me."

"I did really well playing deep in the court and mixing up the pace on her. She can do really well when it's all the same pace."

Following the match, Gauff was given a cake by the Tennis Channel to celebrate her birthday, with Gauff taking a bite out of it on the broadcast.

Coco Gauff won her final match as a teenager on Monday, capping off what has been an astounding run. 

Since bursting onto the scene with a win over Venus Williams at Wimbledon in 2019 – and becoming the youngest player in the tournament’s history to qualify for the main draw at just 15 years old – Gauff hasn’t stopped her ascent. 

In the almost five years since, Gauff has won the US Open, been a finalist at the French Open, been named one of TIME’s Women of the Year, been a cover girl on Vogue and catapulted to third in the world rankings. She’s also made the semifinals or better in three of the four major tournaments, and has made it to the fourth round at Wimbledon twice. 

She’s reached a world No. 1 ranking in doubles, in August 2022, alongside partner Jessica Pegula, and twice made the finals of a Grand Slam in doubles. 

On Monday, her experience helped her shake off a slow start, with Gauff beating Lucia Bronzetti 6-2, 7-6(5) in the third round at Indian Wells. And while it wasn’t always perfect, one thing Gauff has learned thus far in her career is how to win when she’s not always perfect. 

"The mentality is the reason why I'm playing and the reason why I'm being successful," Gauff said. "I'm not always playing my best, but mentally when I show that each match I'm not going to give up, it gives something for the opponent to think about."

She’ll turn 20 on Wednesday, the same day as her fourth-round matchup against Elise Mertens, who ousted Naomi Osaka in the third round. If you ask Gauff what she’d like for her birthday, she doesn’t quite know. 

“I don’t know,” Gauff said in her on-court interview. “I’m just happy to be alive. I’m really happy to see 20.”

Naomi Osaka will make her return to Indian Wells on Thursday, where she won her first WTA title. 

She last played Indian Wells in 2022, and since then has given birth to a baby daughter, Shai. This year’s tournament marks just the second time she’s played Indian Wells since 2019. 

"It's nice to get in the car and be able to drive here," said Osaka, who lives in Beverly Hills. "And I brought my daughter, so coming back home and seeing her is new, but it's nice. It does feel a little bit like home."

Following her win at Indian Wells in 2018, Osaka would win her first Grand Slam – the US Open – later that year. It was her first of four major wins. 

She gave birth to her daughter last July, and made her return to tennis earlier this year. She fell in the opening rounds of this year’s Australian Open and Abu Dhabi Open before making the quarterfinals in Doha. 

As she finds her way back, Osaka – a self-admitted “perfectionist” – is trying to remain positive.  

"I've had dreams while I was pregnant of what I wanted to achieve, and obviously losing in the first round of the Australian Open wasn't in my dreams, but I have to be really realistic and kind to myself," she said. "When I was in Doha and I got to the quarters, I was really happy. I would have loved to go further, but I'm in the top 200 now and I'm actually really excited about that."

She’s unseeded heading into the WTA 1000 event, but that’s just fine. 

“I’m in the Top 200s now -- and I’m actually pretty excited about that,” Osaka said . “I totally forgot what it’s like to be a top seed, so I’m just winging it.

"When I won Indian Wells [in 2018] I wasn't seeded. It's better for me to play the seven matches because I want to know what it's like to potentially win a fifth Grand Slam. This is really great practice for me, and hopefully I'll get through my first match and my second match.”

Osaka plays Italian qualifier Sara Errani in the first round. 

Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep has been cleared to return to tennis after the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced her suspension from four years to nine months.

The reduction of her suspension means that she can return to playing immediately.

The CAS panel accepted that she was not entirely at fault for a positive doping test, and assigned her period of ineligibility starting October 7 of 2022. That means the period of suspension expired last July.

The four-year ban had dated back to October 2022 in September of last year, with the former world No. 1 having been found guilty of testing positive for the banned substance roxadustat. She was later charged with and found guilty of an additional anti-doping rule violation when her Athlete Biological passport was found to have “established use of a prohibited substance and/or prohibited method” over an extended period of time.

“Having carefully considered all the evidence put before it, the CAS Panel determined that Ms. Halep had established, on the balance of probabilities, that the Roxadustat entered her body through the consumption of a contaminated supplement which she had used in the days shortly before 29 August 2022 and that the Roxadustat, as detected in her sample, came from that contaminated product. As a result, the CAS Panel determined that Ms. Halep had also established, on the balance of probabilities, that her anti-doping rule violations were not intentional,” the CAS said in a statement.

“Although the CAS Panel found that Ms. Halep did bear some level of fault or negligence for her violations, as she did not exercise sufficient care when using the Keto MCT supplement, it concluded that she bore no significant fault or negligence.”

As for the ABP charge, the CAS dismissed the charge saying that it was “not comfortably satisfied” that a violation had occurred.

“I cannot wait to return to the tour,” Halep said in a statement released by her lawyer, Howard Jacobs. Jacobs also noted that Halep has since filed a lawsuit against the maker of her supplement.

She also hailed the win against “scandalous accusations” aimed toward her. Had she continued to serve the ban, she would not have returned to tennis until October 2026, after turning 35 years old.

Coco Gauff overcame a slow start and an argument with the chair umpire to take a three-set win over Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday.

The win ends Pliskova’s 11-match winning streak.

After losing the first set, Gauff had built a lead in the second set. Then, chair umpire Pierre Bacchi called out her serve at deuce after Pliskova returned it into the net.

“You called it out after she hit it,” Gauff could be heard telling the umpire, being urged on by the crowd. “The call was a late call.”

She later asked multiple times for the umpire to call the supervisor to help clarify the rules, although the umpire refused to call the supervisor. The total exchange went on for more than four minutes.

“I’m gonna ask her what the rule is,” Gauff said. “You can’t tell me the rule. If I’m questioning the rule you have to call the supervisor. That’s within my right, I know it is.

“You’re going to apologize after this match because you know you messed up,” she continued. “I’ve never questioned anything like this before.”

Footage of the moment appears to concede to Gauff’s point: the call of out came after Pliskova had hit the ball. Former U.S. tennis player Andy Roddick called out the moment, saying that Bacci was “completely wrong.”

“This is an absurd exchange for this umpire,” he wrote. “1. He’s completely wrong 2. He’s lying about being wrong. 3. She must have simply said 10 plus times, I’d like the supervisor. That’s not a judgement call. He simply needed to honor that normal request and call the supervisor. Coco did well here.”

Gauff, who was named a TIME Woman of the Year on Wednesday, said afterward that the argument “fueled” her.

“I think it just fueled me,” the U.S. Open champion said. “I feel confident that it was after. It’s ok. It’s just one point. That happens in tennis. Players make mistakes, everybody makes mistakes. It kind of went upward from there for me. … I was trying to tell myself to stay calm the next point. Sometimes I get angry and I go for too much. I was trying to let that not be the turning point for the set.

“Maybe I dragged it out a little longer than I needed to, but I did what I felt was best in that moment.”

Christen Press opened up about her injury recovery in a recent interview with The Athletic, saying that she is still “relentless” in her optimism regarding her recovery.

Press has been out since June of 2022 with an ACL tear, which has resulted in four surgeries and 20 months away from the game.

“I have a bit of relentless optimism,” she told The Athletic. “I never, ever doubted that I would make it back on any of the timelines I’ve been on. Every single time I’ve heard, ‘You have to have surgery,’ I’m completely shocked,” she said. “When somebody asks me how it’s going, I’m like, ‘It’s going great. And it was going great every time. So I don’t know what to tell you anymore!’”

While it has been a “slow process,” Press was finally taken off of Angel City’s season-ending injury list. But she’s still not back training with the team.

She told The Athletic that she doesn’t expect to be back training in the next few weeks, either. She says that not making the World Cup “released me of a timeline.”

“A slow process, and a lot of expectations that have to shift and be dynamic,” she said. “The beginning of the year and the beginning of the season always mark fresh energy, and I will go into the season watching my team, feeling like it’s still my season and still my team. It’s definitely my community.”

But she’s still eyeing her return, both to Angel City and the U.S. women’s national team. First on that list is getting back to training.

“The first thing I need to do is get into training, but then I can get into games, then I can score goals, then I can have an outstanding season, then I can play on the national team again,” she said. “I don’t have anything ruled out. But the most important thing for me right now is just the first step: getting back into training.”

Aryna Sabalenka won her second Grand Slam title over the weekend, taking home her second-straight Australian Open championship.

Sabalenka is only the second women’s player in the Open era to win her first two singles titles at the Australian Open, following Victoria Azarenka.

She won the title in the same way she dominated the tournament – in straight sets. Zheng Qinwen proved to be no match for Sabalenka, who’s closest match was a 7-6(2), 6-4 semifinal win over Coco Gauff.

“I think Sabalenka is one of the most tough opponents I have faced,” Zheng said after the match. “She’s a really aggressive player. She takes away the rhythm compared to other players.

“It is so important to hold your own service game [against Sabalenka], because she had a really good serve. But I couldn’t do that.”

Sabalenka is the first woman in 11 years to defend a title at the Australian Open.

“As soon as I stepped on the court, I felt like I was in control,” she said after the match.

With the win, the world’s No. 2 player has closed the gap on Iga Swiatek, but their rankings will remain the same following the year’s first major.

Sabalenka has been one of the most consistent players on the women’s tour since Wimbledon in 2021. Nobody has won more than her at Grand Slams, with Sabalenka making the semifinals in seven of the last nine majors. She’s played in three finals, having won two of them.

“I’m speechless right now,” Sabalenka said. “I don’t know how to describe my emotions. I’m super, super happy and proud of everything I was able to achieve. I just have to keep fighting for my dream and believe my father is watching me and very proud of me.”

Aryna Sabalenka promised revenge, and she delivered against Coco Gauff on Thursday.

Sabalenka, the Australian Open defending champion, avenged a US Open final loss to Gauff to become the first woman since Serena Williams to reach back-to-back finals at the Australian Open.

The Belarusian hit 33 winners in her 7-6(2), 6-4 victory that extended her winning streak at Melbourne Park to 13 matches.

“It was an incredible match,” Sabalenka said. “She’s a great player, always tough battles against her. I think the key was that I was able to stay focused no matter what, no matter what the score was, I just keep trying my best, keep fighting for it… It’s one more to go, and I’ll do my best.”

Sabalenka will play Zheng Qinwen in the championship on Saturday.

For Gauff, it was a disappointing showing. She had entered the semifinals unbeaten in 2024 and on a 12-match winning streak in majors. The loss comes after she went to three sets against Marta Kostyuk.

Similar to that match, Gauff was down in the first set but rallied from down 5-2 to take a 6-5 lead. This time, however, she was unable to take the first-set win. And from there, things continued to not go her way.

“Tough match for me tonight. Overall a positive tournament,” Gauff said. “I had chances in both sets, but she played better tonight. I think it just came down to a couple of points, and that’s tennis.

“At this stage in any tournament, but especially a Grand Slam, whether I lost 6-1, 6-1, or like I did today, or in a third-set tiebreak, I still think it would hurt just as much.”

Coco Gauff managed to survive a three-set thriller in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open on Monday to advance to her first semifinal at the major.

She’ll now face off against defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in a rematch of the U.S. Open final, which the 19-year-old won in three sets for her first Grand Slam title.

“I love it. I love it,” Sabalenka said of the showdown with Gauff. “After U.S. Open, I really wanted that revenge, and, I mean, that’s a great match.”

It wasn’t an easy road to get there in what was an error-plagued match. Down 5-1 in the first set, Gauff rallied to take the first set 7-6(6). She would lose the second before easily taking the third set to win the match.

The quarterfinal lasted more than three hours, but extends Gauff’s winning streak at majors to 12 matches.

Gauff had just 17 winners as opposed to 51 unforced errors and nine double-faults.

“Today was definitely a C-game,” Gauff said. “Didn’t play my best tennis but really proud that I was able to get through. Hopefully got the bad match out of the way and I can play even better.”

Still, Gauff was proud of the fight she showed against Marta Kostyuk, who has also been on a career-best stretch.

“I’m really happy and proud of the fight I showed today,” Gauff said on court after the match. “Marta’s a really tough opponent; every time we play it’s tough match. I really fought and left it out on the court today.”

Coco Gauff is into her first Australian Open quarterfinal after a smooth fourth round win over Magdalena Frech.

“First Aussie quarterfinal, super happy to be in this position and be here,” Gauff said after her win. “It’s cool to get over that hump. Hopefully I can keep going for more.”

The reigning US Open champion needed just 63 minutes to get the win in Rod Laver Arena. And the Australian legend was in attendance himself to watch it.

When asked on the court after the win why she went so quick, Gauff joked that it was because she wanted to go see The Iron Claw in theaters.

“I wanna go to the movies,” she said, laughing.

At 19 years old, she is the youngest woman to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals since Agnieska Radwanska in 2008.

Hours after Gauff, Linda Noskova – who is also 19 – also made the quarterfinals. The last teenager to make the quarterfinals at the Australian Open was Madison Keys in 2015.

Gauff will next meet Marta Kostyuk, who ousted her round of 16 opponent in just an hour and 16 minutes. If she were to win that match, Gauff could set up a US Open final rematch in the semifinals against reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka.

There’s no doubt that Gauff is one of the hottest players on tour right now, posting a 32-4 record since the beginning of August – a near 90 percent winning percentage.

World No. 1 Iga Swiatek, who was bounced from the Australian Open by Noskova on Saturday, sits just behind Gauff, and is one of just two players to have defeated Gauff in the last six months. Both she and Jessica Pegula, the other player to do it, are now out of this year’s Open.