MONTREAL, Canada -- Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula are one of the top doubles teams in the world, which means 99 percent of the time, they are on the same page.
But on the way to a comeback win in the second round of the Omnium Banque Nationale, the top seeds experienced a glitch in the matrix.
Serving in the first-set tiebreak against Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi, Gauff reared back on a first serve and fired it right into Pegula, leading to a moment of levity on Stadium Court.
After dropping the tiebreak, the top seeds roared back to win 6-7(3), 6-1 [10-3].
Gauff and Pegula are the reigning champions in Canada, where they won their second WTA 1000 title last year in Toronto. The duo is playing their first tournament together since Wimbledon, which raised a few eyebrows last week at the Mubadala Citi DC Open when they opted not to play doubles.
When a reporter in Montreal implied the two had ended their partnership permanently, Pegula quickly dismissed the idea.
"Someone sent me that headline, and I was, like, 'That's weird,'" Pegula said. "I don't know where on earth that came from. Just because we literally didn't play one week together, everybody was, like, 'You're not playing?' I was, like, 'Relax.'
"Everyone gives us crap for playing too much, and then we didn't play D.C., and we were getting so many questions."
Read: Coco 2.0: How Gauff is embracing her next evolution
Gauff and Pegula will play the full US Open Series swing, but acknowledged their doubles success this season has given them more scheduling flexibility. The team sits at No.1 on the Race to the WTA Finals Leaderboard, with titles in Doha and Miami, two runner-up finishes in Madrid and Rome and semifinal showings at the Australian Open and French Open. They have a 1,545-point lead on the No.2 team of Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens.
"We already have had a great year, so I think that was kind of our decision not to play D.C. even though it would have been fun to play in the U.S. in Washington," Pegula said. "Going into the next two weeks, two 1000s, we would rather prioritize that just as far as our ranking and the Race to the Finals."
Gauff and Pegula are the only regular doubles team to also be ranked in the Top 10 individually. Pegula comes into Montreal ranked No.3, and Gauff, fresh off her title in Washington D.C., sits at No.7. Given their singles prowess, the question has frequently been asked whether they will continue to play doubles together.
"I'm sure as I get way older it won't be as much of a priority," Gauff said. "Even now we're playing less doubles, Jess and I, I think than we did last year. We're just trying to pick out our tournaments a lot better. I do see myself playing in the Slams the majority of the time in doubles. Probably not every Slam, but maybe US Open, and that Slam I think is the one that I would prefer to play as much as possible."
"I will say next year I do want to play a little bit less doubles maybe after the Olympics, but it's tough right now I feel like to just stop playing completely when you are doing well with someone who is from your same country, which you don't see that in a lot of teams."
Gauff was forced to miss the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 after testing positive for COVID-19 and she's keen to make up for it next year at Paris 2024. Her doubles prowess is a key element of her plan.
"A gold medal is a gold medal," Gauff said. "I want to try my best to stay ranked high enough [in doubles] so we can qualify."
