2023-09-10 06:03:10
Thursday in Flushing Meadows, the semi-final of the 19-year-old African-American was interrupted for 50 minutes by environmental activists, one of whom stuck his bare feet to the ground. Nothing to disturb Gauff, who even gave his support to this type of action.
“In history, moments like this are decisive. I do not doubt climate change and I believe that there are things we can do better,” she commented.
“These activists didn’t bother me at all,” she added, while acknowledging that she would have “preferred” that it didn’t happen during her match.
“It happened peacefully, so I can’t be too upset,” Gauff explained, recalling that she was always in favor of people “expressing what they feel and what they believe in.” “.
“Change the world”
In 2022, at Roland Garros, where she reached her first final in a Grand Slam tournament, she told where this civic awareness came from.
“Since I was young, my father has told me that I can change the world with my racket,” she said, following taking a stand once morest guns in the context of a shooting in a Texas elementary school, in Uvalde, which claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers in May that year.
“Sport,” she insisted, “gives you a platform that allows your message to reach more people.”
But, for the voice of an athlete to carry, he or she must be exposed to the media.
And that’s good, Gauff has been overexposed since at the age of 15, for her first Grand Slam tournament, in 2019 at Wimbledon, she beat Venus Williams – five-time winner – in the first round before reaching the round of 16.
From there, she was seen as the heir to her idols, sisters Venus and Serena Williams. With all the pressure that comes with this status. Especially since, a few months later, at the 2020 Australian Open, she eliminated the defending champion, Naomi Osaka, in the third round.
“As she won matches very young, everyone said that she was going to win Grand Slams straight away. We made her into someone she was not,” recalled for AFP coach Patrick Mouratoglou, who discovered it at the age of ten during a scouting session at his tennis academy.
“She was ready to beat great players in a match. But over the duration of a Grand Slam, it’s not the same story,” he remembered.
After her success on Saturday, he said he was “incredibly proud of her” on the X network (formerly Twitter).
Third world
With a basketball father (he played for the University of Georgia) and a gymnast mother who also represented the University of Florida in athletics, Coco Gauff was immersed in sport very early. She took up tennis at six years old following the exploits of the Williams sisters.
Born in Delray Beach (Florida) on March 13, 2004, Corie – known as “Coco” – was already hitting serves at 190 km/h at 14 years old and wanted to be a champion. Her athletic qualities, her mentality, her passion, all the elements came together for her to succeed.
Ranked 938th in the world in July 2018, she entered the Top 100 in October 2019, reached 4th in October 2022 and will be 3rd on Monday. With six titles on the circuit (Linz in 2019, Parma in 2021, Auckland, Washington, Cincinnati and US Open in 2023).
Initially more comfortable on hard courts, she set herself the goal of perfecting her game on all surfaces.
She reached the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros in 2021, at age 17, and played her first final there the following year.
But it was of course the trophy of her National Major, played on hard courts, that she registered her name for the first time on Saturday. Below those of Venus and Serena.
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