The Future of Tennis Is In Good Hands With Coco Gauff
Photo by: Shi Tang/Getty Images
By: Tialena Evans
At just 15 years old, Cori “Coco” Gauff put the world on notice as she rose to prominence with a first round upset in 2019 at Wimbledon against one of the greatest to ever do it, Venus Williams. Gauff won her first Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) singles title at the 2019 Linz Open, which brings no surprise as to why she is the youngest player ranked in the top 100 by WTA. The young star also holds a career-high ranking of No. 66 in the world, which is pretty impressive considering she still has to find time to manage her schoolwork in between training and matches in different parts of the world.
Inspired by the Sister-Act
The Delray Beach, Florida native experimented with a variety of sports as a child, but chose to stick with tennis. As many people expected, Gauff was inspired to pick up the sport by watching her idols, the Williams sisters.
“Serena Williams has always been my idol...and Venus” she has said. “They are the reason why I wanted to pick up a tennis racket”.
After defeating Venus Williams at Wimbledon in 2019, Coco eagerly approached the net to commend Venus as they shook hands after the match. “ I was just telling her thank you for everything she’s done for the sport,” said Coco. “ She’s been an inspiration for many people. I was just really telling her thank you.
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Superstar in the Making
With Serena Williams being universally known as the “Queen” of the game, Coco Gauff has emerged as the “Princess”. Williams has secured her spot as arguably the greatest professional women’s tennis player, by holding the the world No. 1 rank in singles on eight separate occasions, winning four Olympic gold medals, and collecting 23 major singles titles, which is the most by any man or woman in the Open Era. Williams also holds the most Grand Slam titles in singles, doubles, and mixed doubles combined among active players.
Now, while Gauff has nowhere near the amount of William’s accolades, she is well on pace to becoming a superstar in the near future. Everyone tries to find ways in comparing them just on the base that they both found themselves as young stars, coming into the game and excelling greatly and earlier than most. But, an interesting reason why Gauff has been hailed as the next Serena Williams is the fact that they both share a coach in Patrick Mouratoglou. Gauff has been training with Mouratoglou at his tennis facilities in Southern France for five years now, since she was 10. Mouratoglou has praised Gauff as a phenomenal player, and has acknowledged that she has what it takes to become the next great tennis star, especially because she is so driven. He even proclaimed that there are “no limits” when it comes to her career aspirations.
Gauff continued to make her statement as a future superstar during the Australian Open, by defeating Venus Williams once again in straight sets in the first round. She then went on to advance all the way to the fourth round, taking out defending champion Naomi Osaka in the third. Gauff’s impressive run in the Australian Open puts her as the youngest player to defeat a top 5 player since Jennifer Capriati beat Gabriela Sabatini at the 1991 US Open.
Although Coco Gauff and Serena Williams have never played a match against one another, it will definitely be a performance that we all can’t wait to witness. Gauff has already upset one half of the Williams duo, but with a victory over Serena, she just might possibly make the world stand still for a few moments.
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