Coco Gauff heads home to the Miami Open after her 21st birthday and a bit of a rough patch

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Coco Gauff shrugged her right shoulder and chuckled a bit Monday at the notion that she seems to illicit concern from others when she goes through a two- or three-match losing streak — a rough patch in the course of a long season.

“Sometimes when I don’t do well, people think there’s something personally wrong with me,” Gauff said on the eve of the Miami Open, where the women begin main-draw play on Tuesday and the men get started Wednesday.

Bow out early at one event or two — or drop a trio of outings consecutively, as she did at the Australian Open, Qatar and Dubai in January and February — and fans or former players will ask the 2023 U.S. Open champion, who just turned 21 last week, whether she’s OK.

“I’m like, ‘I just lost a couple of matches! I’m chillin’,’” said Gauff, who has a first-round bye because she is seeded No. 3 at the hard-court Masters 1000 event and will get started by taking on another past Grand Slam champion — Petra Kvitova or Sofia Kenin — in the second round later in the week.

“I’m obviously not happy with those past results, but it’s one of those things that, in the history of my career, I’ve had ups and downs. I still feel like I have a couple more years … (to reach) that point where every week is a great week, I guess,” said Gauff, who is based not far from where the Miami Open is played. “I’m also in the middle of changes in my game; it’s been difficult.”

She’s spoken frequently about those switches, which began with adjusting her coaching staff after last year’s U.S. Open and also included adapting her serve — with a particular eye on shoring up second serves so as to avoid double-fault issues — and her forehand.

It’s been clear ever since she burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old qualifier at Wimbledon in 2019, beating seven-time major champion Venus Williams along the way to reaching the fourth round, that Gauff’s backhand is nothing if not elite, while her forehand is the shot that opponents tend to go after.

The American’s most recent match was a three-set loss to Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Belinda Bencic at Indian Wells, California, in the fourth round last week. Afterward, Bencic spoke about what her thinking was at 4-all in the final set.

“I felt like she was more tense,” Bencic said about Gauff, “so I felt like that was the right time to go for her forehand.”

Gauff called the event held over the next two weeks at the stadium used by the NFL’s Miami Dolphins as her “home tournament.”

She’s 6-5 in Miami and has not made it beyond the fourth round there.

No matter what others might say to her, or about her, after setbacks, Gauff doesn’t like to harp on it too much — even if she expects more from herself, too.

That’s what comes with being ranked as highly as she is. And with having won Grand Slam titles in singles and doubles, along with the season-ending WTA Finals last year.

“I will say that it is tough, sometimes, when everyone is (saying), ‘Oh, (lost) two matches in a row,’ and things like that,” she said Monday. “Because if I wasn’t a top-five player it wouldn’t, probably, be a conversation. That comes with being at the top. You’re expected to win. And I expect myself to win, as well.”

Howard Fendrich has been the AP’s tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: