Please Let Me Be: Let Coco Gauff Be the First Coco Gauff and Stop the Endless Comparisons Due to…
In 1995 Serena lost her first professional tennis match at age 14. She wasn’t dominant from the onset. But 23 major titles later, you’d forget about all of that. We lived through a long period where Serena winning a major, seemed like a foregone conclusion. This month makes two years since Williams retired. And I think ever since women’s tennis has been in search of their next big star. Enter Coco Gauff who has shown the speed, power and poise to be able to hang with anyone in a match. Because of that, I feel that we all hope that she has a career that’s reminiscent of Williams.
If we can all look back at this lull of a season in a few years, with some major title wins by then, that would be great. But it would be unfair to put the amount of pressure on Coco to perform at the level of Serena. That’s not what she signed up for. And believe me, the amount of pressure to go one-on-one with another world-class athlete is high enough.
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Coco Gauff ends ‘incredible run’ with US Open winning coach
Coco Gauff has announced that she is parting ways with coach Brad Gilbert, with the working relationship lasting just over a year.
Gauff and Gilbert, who has also coached the likes of Andy Murray and Andre Agassi, began their partnership back in July 2023 after the American had lost in the first round of Wimbledon.
This propelled Gauff onto a very successful North American hard court swing, winning titles in Washington D.C and the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati, before going onto claim her first major title at the US Open.
While there have been some positive results since for Gauff, including defending her title in Auckland and reaching the singles semi-finals of both the Australian Open and Roland Garros, the 20-year-old has not been able to recreate that same success since.
Gauff has recently dropped down to No.6 in the WTA rankings, after she was unable to defend many of her points from last year’s run, most recently losing in the fourth round of the US Open to Emma Navarro.
And she has now taken to social media to thank Gilbert for their time together, “Thank you @bgtennisnation! We had an incredible run. I wish you all the best for the future!”
Thank you @bgtennisnation ! We had an incredible run and I wish you all the best in the future! pic.twitter.com/5A2pzJjHUB
— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) September 18, 2024
It appears that the split was very amicable, as Gilbert also wished Gauff the best for her future, “Thanks to @CocoGauff and the entire team for an absolutely amazing summer run in 2023 and for 14 months of incredible team effort.
“Coco, at just 20 years young, your future is incredibly bright, and I wish you nothing but continued success ahead. I’m excited for the next chapter in my Coaching career.”
It is not yet known who Gauff will work with next, as she returns to action at the China Open in Beijing next week.
Inside the baseline…
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