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With the withdrawal of world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff is officially the top seed at this year’s edition of the Omnium Banque Nationale.

The women (unlike the men’s carnage in Toronto) have been largely spared so far, with only Sabalenka and Zheng Qinwen (who just had arthroscopic elbow surgery) the only major names not to make the date.

Gauff didn’t play this past week in D.C., so she’s fresh and looked in good spirits as she practiced on the empty stadium court Friday.

Here’s what she looked like.

Standing IN Montreal

There were a few takeaways from watching her practice up close.

The first is just how … grownup she is. She’s a beautiful woman now, not a slightly gangly girl. Time flies.

Another thing is how far she stands back to return serve, definitely not an offensive posture.

To repurpose a phrase uttered by the legendary Oracene Price (mother of the Williams sisters) at the Australian Open one year, “Get out of MELBOURNE!”

That refered to the stencilling of the city’s name, far beyond the baseline. And Gauff was doing the same – especially on her first serve. She would move sideways after her split step, not forwards. On the second serve, starting in the same spot, she would push forward nearer the baseline. But it’s not a threatening position to put pressure on the opponent’s serve.

Another observation is that she makes contactl at a different height of ball every time on the forehand, depending on where it is when it gets to her. Sometimes lower, sometimes at shoulder height. So there’s not the footwork to try to make the stroke as consistent and repeatable as possible, and leads her to hit every forehand differently. It’s not THAT unusual. But for a player looking for consistency on that side, it means a recalibration of the technique on almost every stroke.

She hit most of her backhands at shoulder height, too. Hard to do, although no one would find much fault with Gauff’s backhand.

A local practice partner

Another observation was how she and her team engaged the hitting partner.

Most of the time, the local guys (or gals) provided on site at tournament for players to hit with are these sort of invisible people. They sit at the other chair alone, while the player is surrounded by their team on the other side, and wait for instructions.

But Gauff and her team engaged Laval native Ange-Kevin Koua, who was sporting the kit of his alma mater, the Division I University of South Dakota.

Koua, who at 21 is the same age as Gauff, was the captain of that team this past year and just graduated in May with a degree in marketing, and is planning to start his Masters degree in the fall.

They were asking him all about his school, and his education, and North Dakota (rather an unusual place for a kid from Laval to land). About Montreal.

You love to see that.