Coco Gauff is set to lose fourth place in the WTA Rankings to Mirra Andreeva following her shock defeat to Elise Mertens at the China Open.
The two-time Grand Slam winner, a semi-finalist in Beijing 12 months ago, suffered a first career loss against Mertens as she produced one of her worst performances of the year, going down 6-3, 6-3 against the 13th seed.
Mertens started the last-16 encounter with a 0-5 head-to-head record against Gauff, but she had the early advantage as she broke to love in game three and, although the American was back on serve in game six, the world No 19 won the final three games as she broke twice.
Another early break in the second set put Mertens in charge, and this time there was no mini fightback from the world No 4 as the Belgian served it out for 6-3, 6-3 victory, setting up a quarter-final against Iga Swiatek, who beat Iva Jovic 6-1, 6-3 earlier in the day.
Coco Gauff’s Ranking Points
Gauff dropped 1,390 points at the start of the China Open as players are defending points from last year’s Beijing event as well as the Wuhan Open due to an overlap in the calendar.
The American, of course, earned 390 points for her run to the semi-final in 2025 while she won the title in Wuhan, which was worth another 1,000 points.
WTA News
The 22-year-old started the tournament with 7,244 points, but dropped to 5,854 in the Live Rankings once the points from 2025 were removed.
She earned only 120 points for her round of 16 appearance, putting her on 5,974 points with Andreeva – who has 5,936 points in the Live WTA Rankings after reaching the quarter-final in China – now just one win away from overtaking her.
For now, she is assured of at least fifth place in the rankings after the China Open with Elina Svitolina too far adrift as she won’t be able to surpass the American even if she wins the tournament.
Prize Money Earned
The American’s run to the fourth round is worth $105,720 and that will take her past the $7m mark for the year as she was on $6,971,776 before the start of the penultimate WTA 1000 event of the year.
Gauff is also edging towards the $40m mark in career career earnings as she was on $36,730,897 before the China Open got underway.
The 22-year-old has won only one title this year, the Cincinnati Open in August, while she finished runner-up at the Miami Open in March and the Italian Open in May.
