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COCO GAUFF GETS PERSONAL IN NEW VIDEO: “I JUST FEEL LIKE PEOPLE ONLY SEE THE WORK ON THE COURT”

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Coco Gauff

The Tennis player who won the 2023 US Open shared what she does on her downtime and how it helps her focused when its gametime

In a recent candid video, tennis champion Coco Gauff gave the world a glimpse into her multifaceted life beyond the tennis court. The US Open champion opened up about her personal time and the many activities she loves outside of tennis- activities she doesn’t always share with the public.

Gauff’s heartfelt monologue emphasized the importance of prioritizing her mental health and staying present in the moment despite having a hectic schedule. The 19-year old underscored her vulnerability and commitment to mental well-being while coming across as an inspiration, reminding her fans and fellow athletes of the significance of taking time for oneself.

“Nothing is better for my game, then taking my mind off the game” – Coco Gauff

The video is part of campaign collab between Ray Ban and meta for its new smart sunglasses. Gauff shared it in both Instagram and TikTok with the caption: “Being fully present in my downtime lets me stay focused when its gametime. Thanks for helping me stay in the moment 💜🖤🙌🏾”

Some of the higlights included her revealing how she believes people saw her. “When I was young people used to think I lived and breathed tennis,” she says in a voice over. “I just feel like people see the work on court but don’t realize how many things I like to do off the court,” she said.

Coco Gauff

“I just don’t necessarily always share that stuff about myself. Some days I just like to sit in my hotel room and just do nothing.” – Coco Gauff –

She also talked about athletes in general and the relatability to the rest of us. “We’re people too,” she says. “I have two younger brothers, it feels like home when I’m with them.”

Coco Gauff’s family

Coco Gauff often speaks about the importance of her family, which has proved to be pivotal for her development as a person and a player. “I’m the oldest of three siblings. Maybe that has something to play with it. I don’t know. I feel like I have learned a lot quickly,” she said in a press conference at the Qatar Open.

Her parents are Corey and Candi and her brothers are Codey and Cameron. Codey is 14 years old and has an interest on many things, including baseball. Cameron is 9 years old and has a strong bond with his sister, helping her come up with some designs for her shoe line.

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‘Electric’ Venus and Serena Williams Inspiration Voiced Emphatically by Coco Gauff as the Legendary Sisters Continue to Fuel Her ‘Love’ for Tennis

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Coco Gauff

In the world of tennis, there have been many talented players who have kept their names on the top charts throughout their careers. Among all of them, the legendary sisters Venus and Serena Williams not only topped the rankings but also won hearts and made their mark in the minds of young enthusiasts. The 2023 US Open champion Coco Gauff is one name who grew up watching these legends perform.

Coco Gauff, the 19-year-old American tennis star, has been making her mark with extraordinary performances lately. This year, she achieved a prominent triumph by winning her first Grand Slam title at the US Open. However, besides all these victories and keeping up with the highlights, Gauff’s statement about the Williams sisters showed their impact on the world of tennis.

The year 2023 brought several challenges for the young American tennis star Coco Gauff. Facing those challenges with firm determination, the 19-year-old managed to overcome them and turn all of them into achievements. The US Open victory, which happened to be the maiden Grand Slam title for Gauff, got her the attention of fans and the media worldwide. Using that opportunity, the young champ narrated her story of hard work and motivation.

Gauff’s story had two names on a recurring note, Venus and Serena Williams. Caught in a conversation with the media, the 19-year-old mentioned, “And then seeing Serena & Venus being so electric on TV made me want to do something like that, too. And then it just became a part of me pretty much after, I would say, the age of eight is when I really fell in love with it.” These sentiments reflect the magic that these tennis legends brought to her life, inspiring her to achieve a dream that ultimately led to her US Open victory.

Coco Gauff

While Gauff talked about the “electricity” of the legendary tennis sisters, this wasn’t the first time she revealed her admiration for them.

Coco Gauff achieved a remarkable feat by winning her first Grand Slam title at the recently concluded US Open. Keeping her firm admiration for Venus and Serena Williams alive, she dedicated her victory to the legendary names as she mentioned, “It’s crazy. I mean, they’re the reason why I have this trophy today, to be honest.” With these words, she honored the motivation she sought from these legends.

This revelation of Serena’s role in her success is a strong reminder of the impact tennis icons can have on young talents, like Gauff. Their “electric” presence on the court continues to inspire generations of tennis stars. Coco Gauff is a bright example of this legacy.

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Coco Gauff Rips Chair Umpire over Pace During 2023 US Open 1st Round Match

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Coco Gauff

Coco Gauff eventually had enough.

Gauff opened her 2023 U.S. Open journey with a matchup against Laura Siegemund on Monday, but the tennis took something of a back seat by the third set. Both the crowd and the American tennis star were visibly frustrated by Siegemund’s pace of play throughout the match.

It reached a point where Gauff even approached the chair umpire to complain about how everything was unfolding:

Siegemund flirted with the serve clock time on a number of her own serves and then wasn’t ready for Gauff’s serves on the other end when the No. 6 seed was ready to start ensuing points. She was issued a time warning—which the crowd greeted with a roar—shortly before Gauff eventually let her frustrations be known in her interaction with the chair umpire.

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Coco Gauff and the unknown of being a teenage Grand Slam champion

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Coco Gauff

Look, at some point, Coco Gauff was going to lose a tennis match.

No one wins forever, even a teenage Grand Slam winner seemingly destined for greatness who has to deal with all the attendant pressures that come with reaching the pinnacle of the sport.

She was going to have to deal with the inevitable niggles, discomforts and injuries that happen when someone starts to reach the deep end at nearly every tournament they enter.

The good feels that began with Gauff’s triumph in Washington, D.C. in mid-summer gained steam with another winner’s trophy near Cincinnati in late August and peaked with victory at the U.S. Open in September before hopping across the Pacific Ocean for four more solid wins at the China Open in Beijing.

But then came a semi-final loss in China on Saturday to Iga Swiatek, the world No 2, who herself knows something about the rough seas that can accompany a teenage breakthrough.

“One of the goals I set earlier in the year was for me to do well in the big events,” Gauff, 19, said after the loss to Swiatek, during which she received treatment on her sore right shoulder from a physiotherapist. “I accomplished that goal. I’m really proud of myself.”

As well she should be. Now comes the tricky part: making sure she isn’t a tennis one-hit-wonder, but rather the kind of enduring champion who fills a room with important trophies throughout her career.

“She’s won her Grand Slam, but she wants to win many of them,” said Alessandro Barel Di Sant Albano of Team8, who is Gauff’s agent.

There are plenty of road maps. Tennis does not lack teenage Grand Slam champions who went on to have epic careers — Bjorn Borg, Serena Williams, Chris Evert, Mats Wilander, Monica Seles, Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova among others.

Coco Gauff

 

Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz seem well on their way, but teen success hardly guarantees a career of triumph. Just ask Bianca Andreescu, Emma Raducanu or Jelena Ostapenko, who all experienced rapid journeys to the top of the mountain; maybe too rapid.

Teenage female Grand Slam winners
PLAYER
AGE
YEAR/GRAND SLAM
TOTAL GRAND SLAMS WON
Martina Hingis
16
1997 Australian Open
5
Monica Seles
16
1990 French Open
9
Tracy Austin
16
1979 US Open
2
Maria Sharapova
17
2004 Wimbledon
5
Arantxa Sanchez Vicario
17
1989 French Open
4
Serena Williams
17
1999 US Open
23
Steffi Graf
17
1987 French Open
22
Emma Raducanu
18
2021 US Open
1
Hana Mandlikova
18
1980 Australian Open
4
Svetlana Kuznetsova
19
2004 US Open
2
Bianca Andreescu
19
2019 US Open
1
Iga Swiatek
19
2020 French Open
4
Chris Evert
19
1974 French Open
18
Coco Gauff
19
2023 US Open
1
Iva Majoli
19
1997 French Open
1
Evonne Goolagong Cawley
19
1971 French Open
7
*Open era only

Even Swiatek, now 22, who also burst practically out of nowhere to win the French Open in 2020, was teetering on the edge of an emotional break by the end of the next year, unable to deal with the stress of adjusting to life as a Grand Slam champion suddenly playing with a massive target on her back.

“A lot of tennis is about levels, moving up from one level to the next,” said Tracy Austin, who beat Martina Navratilova and Evert back-to-back to win the U.S. Open aged 16 in 1979, then returned to biology class at Rolling Hills High School in California days later. “Going through those levels gives you time to get grounded as you move from one level to the next.”

Staying grounded has been one of Gauff’s top priorities in the weeks following the biggest splash of her nascent career.

Gauff’s victory in New York at the U.S. Open last month occurred just before 6:30pm and she stayed at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center conducting interviews with the press until nearly midnight.

The next day, she went to the Sunday Night Football game at MetLife Stadium between the New York Giants and the Buffalo Bills and then appeared on The Today Show the next morning.

After that, she went home to Delray Beach, Florida, and essentially disappeared. She attended a 40-person party for friends and family at the nearby Ray Hotel, since many of those had not been able to attend the U.S. Open.

That included her brothers, who had been busy with their first weeks of school and their own sports. Codey Gauff is a serious baseball player and Cameron is a Pee Wee football quarterback.

She turned down hundreds of media requests. Sant Albano politely declined dozens of approaches from companies wanting to sign her to sponsorships. Gauff has long-term deals with New Balance, Head, Rolex, Bose, Barilla, Baker Tilly and U.P.S. “That’s plenty for now,” Sant Albano said.

She had dinner with her friends. She did the usual chores her parents make her do. She slept, a lot.

Last year, Alcaraz resumed competing just days after winning the U.S. Open. He spent the next months battling injuries and missed both the ATP Finals and the 2023 Australian Open. Gauff didn’t touch a racket for six days following her win.

Only after proper rest did she start thinking about practicing again and competing in the last tournaments of the season, which will conclude with the $9million (£7.3m; €8.5m) WTA Finals in Cancun, beginning on October 29.

After the shoulder soreness flared up in Beijing, she pulled out of this week’s tournament in Zhengzhou. If there is any risk of a serious injury that also causes her to pull out of the WTA Finals, so be it.

People who have done this all before say Gauff’s advantage is that, strange as this may sound, what happened in New York was borderline normal for Coco World.

Coco Gauff

With the memories of Gauff’s stirring win still fresh — the collapse on the court after that last rolling backhand down the line, the tear-soaked, three-way hug with her parents, taking possession of a check for $3million — it’s hard to think of anything that happened on that momentous Saturday evening as normal. But Gauff is not a normal teenage tennis player.

She has been carrying expectations for years, ever since her breakout run to the fourth round of Wimbledon in 2019 when she was just 15. Billboards? Magazine covers? Been there, done that. She won her first WTA title in 2019 and another one in 2021. She made the final of the French Open last year, then rolled through this summer’s tournaments in the U.S. to her maiden Grand Slam title.

“Coco has been famous for a while,” Sant Albano said.

That wasn’t the case for Ostapenko, the Latvian who was ranked 47th when she blasted her way to the French Open title in 2017, or Andreescu, who began 2019 outside the top 100 but won the U.S. Open that September, becoming the first Canadian Grand Slam singles champion as well as very rich and very famous.

By the end of 2021, she was volunteering in a shelter for survivors of domestic violence and then later attended a yoga and consciousness-raising retreat in Costa Rica to figure out if she wanted to play tennis anymore.

“In a way, like, I had it all, but I didn’t feel fulfilled or happy inside,” Andreescu said during an interview earlier this year. “And that’s when I was like, ‘OK, I understand why people have whatever they want and then deep down they don’t love themselves or are not fulfilled in whatever way.’”

Swiatek was ranked 54th when she won the French Open in October 2020. Thirteen months later, at the WTA Finals in Guadalajara in 2021, she broke down in tears after her loss to Maria Sakkari, who comforted her at the net.

Swiatek, who made the quarter-finals of just one Grand Slam that year, said she was overcome with frustration at not being able to handle the stress. “I forget this is new for me,” she said at the time.

Raducanu was an 18-year-old qualifier and just a few months removed from taking her university entrance exams when she won the U.S. Open in 2021. She morphed into a fashion icon at the Met Gala days later, then struggled to string together wins throughout 2022 and had surgery on both wrists earlier this year.

All of their lives were transformed practically overnight.

In contrast, Evert, who was among the first teen phenoms of the modern era when she won the French Open and Wimbledon at the age of 19 in 1974, said players who experience a “natural progression”, who are known entities and justifiably highly touted before they win a Grand Slam, experience the triumph as a confirmation that they belong.

She, Austin, Steffi Graf, Seles (who won an absurd eight Grand Slams before her 20th birthday), Martina Hingis, and Gauff didn’t surprise many people when they finally broke through.

Coco Gauff

“It gets the antenna up a little more,” said Evert, who now commentates for ESPN. “It’s not pressure but being more aware that you know you are at that level.”

Wilander, a French Open champion at 17 who went on to win six more Grand Slams, said he was helped by having a social structure that kept him grounded, with his older brothers still treating him like their little brother.

Also, Swedish culture, he said, looked down on people who showed off their money or bragged about their exploits, so he didn’t. Other top Swedish players, such as Mikael Pernfors and Anders Jarryd, kept beating him in practice and making him fetch decks of cards in the locker room or beers at the players’ hotel.

The challenge for him came later, after his seventh Grand slam triumph, after he had become No 1. He had achieved everything he had set out to achieve on the tennis court. That is when the emptiness and the lack of motivation set in. His fame had allowed him to hobnob with celebrities and fulfil his true dream of playing guitar with Keith Richards.

“There is an artificial twist to your life,” Wilander said. “It can be overwhelming and inject a false sense of confidence in you as a human being.”

So far so good on that front for Gauff. However, as Swiatek and Andreescu and so many others have shown, what comes next is anyone’s guess.

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“Steffi Graf Was the Second Greatest”: Andy Murray’s Ex-Coach Snubs Williams and Navratilova, Names Coco Gauff Greatest “Women’s Athlete Ever”

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steffi graf and coco guaff

Andy Murray’s former coach Mark Petchey has made a bold statement by claiming that Coco Gauff as the best WTA athlete ever. The tennis coach named Steffi Graf as the second best and totally snubbed Venus Williams and Martina Navratilova. Women’s tennis has seen its fair share of remarkable athletes throughout the years, with names like Steffi Graf, Serena Williams and Venus Williams leaving a mark on the tennis history. Hence, this statement by Petchey has attracted a lot of attention.

Coco Gauff is still only 19 years of age and has just won her first-ever Grand Slam title. Gauff winning her first Grand Slam has made many believe that she is the heir to Serena Williams, but the teenager still has a long way to go.

NEWS:-WTA Beijing Day 3 Predictions Including Coco Gauff Vs Ekaterina Alexandrova

Coco Gauff is the best ever WTA athlete according to Mark Petchey

Mark Petchey has made a bold statement claiming that Coco Gauff is the greatest women’s tennis athlete ever. The British tennis coach was comparing Gauff to Steffi Graf, who he felt was the second best athlete ever. The former world number 1, Graf, won 22 major titles in her illustrious career.

When comparing the two, Petchey claimed that Coco Gauff is experiencing a different version of tennis as compared to Graff. Petchey added that tennis has evolved over the years and the game is now at a higher and quicker level. With all these things put into perspective, the British coach gave his nod to Gauff as the greatest WTA athlete of all time.

steffi graf

“I think Coco Gauff is the best athlete to play tennis. You cannot tell me the sport is played at the same pace as it was when Steffi was playing. The sport moves on and I don’t think we should compare the current generation of players to the GOATs because they were the best in their era. I personally think, Coco Gauff, looking at her right now, with the speed at which the game is played at.. she is the best best women’s tennis athlete we have ever seen.”

Coco Gauff is still in the early stages of her professional career and Mark Petchey’s statement feels farfetched. Former players such as Venus Williams and Martina Navratilova have made an impact on tennis, and calling a 19-year-old the greatest WTA athlete ever can be considered disrespectful.

Gauff still has a long way to go

While Coco Gauff’s talent and athleticism have been obvious since her breakout performance at the French Open 2021, it is important to remember the long-lasting legacies of players such as Steffi Graf, Venus Williams, and Martina Navratilova. These tennis legends have proved that consistency and longevity are the most important things for a player to succeed.

Gauff will need to keep adding to her US Open title and show a lot more consistency and longevity to match the records set by the GOATs of the sport.

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WTA Beijing Day 3 Predictions Including Coco Gauff Vs Ekaterina Alexandrova

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Coco Gauff

Coco Gauff is back in action at the WTA Beijing Open. It is the American’s first tournament back since her stunning run to the title at the US Open. Gauff’s first round match against Ekaterina Alexandrova is one of four contests predicted in this article. There are 13 matches in total scheduled in total on a very busy day in Beijing. We at LWOT predict the other nine matchups on Day 3 in two separate articles–one featuring Elena Rybakina vs Qinwen Zheng and the second featuring Iga Swiatek vs Sara Sorribes Tormo.

WTA Beijing Day 3 Predictions

Jasmine Paolini vs Yue Yuan

Head-to-head: First meeting

Both players had superb comeback victories in their respective opening rounds. Paolini defeated French Open semifinalist Beatriz Haddad Maia, while Yuan upset Elise Mertens. Yuan’s natural ability is so much better than her current ranking, which is outside the Top 100. Another upset is possible with her home fans supporting her. But I think Paolini will get through this test. The Italian is a determined and feisty competitor, and is unlikely to be phased by the crowd being against her. Expect her to be resilient and tough in the important moments in this WTA Beijing Open clash.

Coco Gauff

This should be a fun match between two players who play aggressively. 2017 French Open winner Ostapenko is difficult for most players to stop when her ball-striking is on point. But I am backing her teenage opponent at the WTA Beijing Open. Even at such a young age, Noskova’s strong preference for hard courts is clear. She usually strikes the ball cleanly and consistently on her favoured surface. That puts added pressure on Ostapenko to conjure up enough winners. In truth, predicting the inconsistent Ostapenko’s matches is difficult, and she is capable of blasting her way to victory. Nonetheless, the Czech gets a slight edge here

2019 Australian Open finalist Kvitova has had a great season overall, although she has struggled for wins by her standards since the end of the grass court season. This could be a tough match for her. Montreal Masters finalist Samsonova is dangerous in Asian conditions, having won the Tokyo Open last year. Her huge serve in the moderately fast conditions in Beijing is a huge weapon if it is working. Kvitova is the better all-round player, but I feel there is a good chance of this being a very tight match.  I am going with Samsonova to cause a minor upset at the WTA Beijing Open.

Coco Gauff

It will be fascinating to observe Gauff’s level on her return. Will she be fully focused, or could her season understandably peter out after that incredible win at Flushing Meadows? I doubt Alexandrova is the ideal first opponent back for her. The huge-serving 28-year-old has caused Gauff problems in quick conditions in the past. Alexandrova beat Gauff on grass this year, and only lost to the American in a final-set tiebreak in Dubai in 2021. It is unlikely to be a match where Gauff gets much rhythm. I am backing the US Open champion to get it done at the WTA Beijing Open. But a close match, or even an upset would not be a huge surprise.

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