Coco Gauff opened her WTA Madrid Open campaign on Friday against French qualifier Leolia Jeanjean, starting another run on clay with the weight of last year’s results behind her. The world No. 3 reached the final in Madrid and Rome a year ago and won the French Open, a stretch that made her one of the players to watch again this spring.
That record still matters because Gauff’s clay résumé was not a one-off. She put together 18 wins on clay last year against only three defeats, and even after losing to Karolina Muchova in Stuttgart after seven straight matches, she arrived in Madrid with a case as one of the main contenders on the surface. Jeanjean, however, was seen as a difficult opener only in the sense that Gauff would need to be sharp from the first point; the qualifier lacked the power to hit through Gauff’s defense.
The same predictions piece that framed Gauff’s title credentials also pointed to Magdalena Frech as a player trying to steady herself after a difficult run. Frech was winless in her last four matches, even though she had reached the final in Merida before the slump, and the source said she had not looked spectacular on clay last year. Her place inside the top 50 was not considered under immediate threat, but the margin for comfort was thinner than it had been a few weeks earlier.
Frech’s recent form stands in contrast to Victoria Sierra, who already had a win that week after beating Dayana Yastremska. The source predicted Frech would lose to Sierra in three sets, a call that captured the narrowness of the gap between players whose seasons had moved in opposite directions. For readers tracking the Madrid draw, the link between the two stories is simple: Gauff is entering the event with the kind of clay-court record that demands attention, while Frech arrives with her ranking intact but her momentum gone.
That contrast is what makes this stage of the tournament worth watching. Gauff is trying to turn last year’s clay success into another deep Madrid run, and Frech is trying to stop a slide before it spreads further. For both, the next match is less about reputation than proof.
Read more on Stuttgart Open: Laura Siegemund leans on rest and form before Magdalena Frech.
