2023-08-27 21:50:00
Coco Gauff emerged so young on the circuit that we almost forget she is still only 19 years old and has her whole life ahead of her. For a bit, some might think that the American is taking her time. But Gauff, at 19, is already a Grand Slam final (Roland-Garros 2022), five titles, including the two most important in recent weeks, with a victory in Washington (WTA 500) and, since the weekend last end, a WTA 1000 gleaned in Cincinnati. In short, it is going in the right direction, and this is more true than ever in this summer of 2023.
Of these two accomplishments, it’s hard to say which is the bigger boost to his confidence going into the US Open. To have won his greatest title, or to have finally found the key once morest the world number one? Let’s say that the second comes to validate the first. It even reinforces its scope. “It’s very strong because, following a victory like the one once morest Swiatek, sometimes you feel physical and emotional fatigue the next day, notes Alex Corretja. To have won this final is very strong. But psychologically, I think his victory once morest Iga is even more important.”
The youngest, by far
Being ultra-precocious and gifted is a potentially poisoned gift. Boris Becker is well placed to know. Winner of Wimbledon at 17, starred in Germany in unprecedented proportions when the country’s tennis past was almost non-existent, he was subjected to colossal pressure. In a different context, Coco Gauff has had a similar experience in recent years.
Coco Gauff is getting closer to the heights.
Credit: Getty Images
“It’s always difficult when you are 15 and the specialists are already presenting you as the new tennis superstar, believes the former world number one. It does not make life easier for you as a teenager. The pressure increases, the expectations are necessarily very high and the risk, for her, was to lose patience too quickly. There had been her final in Paris, but she had not gone to the end. To win a first title of this level in Cincinnati will do him good.”
Coco Gauff arrives in New York pumped up and with a little lighter heart. In the Top 30, she is the only player who has not yet celebrated her 20th birthday. Among the top 10, the youngest following her is Iga Swiatek (22). The future therefore probably belongs to the American, but it is the present that interests her. Stopped in the quarter-finals by Caroline Garcia in Flushing last year, she feels “much more confident”. “August was a great month for me, I mightn’t have hoped for better,” she says.
Women’s tennis still needs a superstar
If she believes she has “learned a lot” from certain defeats in recent seasons, she thinks she had discovered even more things by winning in Washington and especially in Cincinnati. “I discovered that I didn’t have to play my best tennis all the time,” she says. Through this reflection, she evokes above all a match: her final once morest Karolina Muchova last weekend in Ohio, the day following her exploit once morest Iga Swiatek.
Coco Gauff following her win over Iga Swiatek in Cincinnati.
Credit: Eurosport
“Obviously, before the match, you hope to play the best possible tennis, but it is not always possible, confides the world No. 6. I am thinking in particular of the final once morest Muchova. I did not play my best tennis , but I still managed to win this final, and in two sets.” The result of now well-established certainties: “I have much more confidence now in the different aspects of my game. If my serve does not work, I know that I can rely on my groundstrokes, and vice versa . I have several solutions. It all comes with experience.”
The experience. Gauff, now chaperoned by Brad Gilbert, talks like an old veteran but, in fact, and this is the great advantage of her precocity, she has an unusual experience at 19 years old. And as she learns quickly and well, her advent may not be very far away. In Flushing now or elsewhere a little later, there even seems to be something inescapable. For Boris Becker, it would be a boon: “She has a great personality and charisma. She comes from the United States, one of the promised lands of this sport. Women’s tennis still needs a superstar. I’m sure Coco Gauff may be the one.” She hasn’t done anything lately that is of a nature to doubt it.
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