Coco Gauff breezes through at Australian Open after Roddick tune-up
Coco Gauff has revealed that she worked with Andy Roddick, the last man from the US to win a singles grand slam title, during the off-season to reconfigure her service motion as she looks to build on last year’s US Open triumph and compete for more major titles.
“It was really cool,” Gauff said. “He’s a really chill guy. I met him before but never to that level. I went to Charlotte for two days. It was a really good two days. I think that my serve has improved. I think I just need to continue to trust it and trust all the work that I did in the off-season.”
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On Monday afternoon, Gauff began her campaign at the Australian Open with a straightforward 6-3, 6-0 win over Anna Karolína Schmiedlová. Gauff’s first serve is one of the biggest in the world and it has long been one of her best weapons but she still has significant room to improve its precision and consistency in addition to her inconsistent second serve.
During her time with Roddick and her coach, Brad Gilbert, who previously coached Roddick, they worked on simplifying her motion and she now serves with a more abbreviated and smoother swing.
Roddick remains an extremely popular figure and an astute pundit since his retirement but he has rarely offered his services to players since his retirement. Roddick’s only grand slam title at the 2003 US Open came exactly 20 years before Gauff’s triumph and six months before Gauff was born.
“He’s probably one of the best servers in history, and especially on the American side,” Gauff said. “So I don’t think I could have chosen anybody — or actually, I didn’t really choose, he offered. I don’t think I could have gotten anybody else better to kind of help me with that.”
Since losing in the first round of Wimbledon last year, Gauff has been on the best run of her young career, compiling a 30-4 record as she won titles in Cincinnati and Washington in addition to the US Open last year.
She picked up where she left off at the start of this season, defending her Auckland title in the first week of the season, and she is now 6-0 to start the year. Gauff will face Caroline Dolehide, a fellow American, in the second round.
Coco Gauff hits out at ‘hideous’ cartoon of American players at Australian Open
Coco Gauff hits out at ‘hideous’ cartoon of American players at Australian Open
Gauff and other US players such as Jessica Pegula, Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe were drawn in the style of the Wild Thornberrys cartoon
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Coco Gauff has mocked a “hype post” created by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) as “hideous” as the US Open champion said the cartoon made her and her fellow American players look “so ugly”.
The social media post by the USTA depicted the seeded American players at this month’s Australian Open in the style of the Wild Thornberrys cartoon but was swiftly deleted.
On Sunday, the US Open champion and world No 4 reacted to the social media post on her Instagram story and said it was the “worst thing I’ve ever seen”.
“Like a caricature artist decided to make [us] all look like hideous looking people,” Gauff said.
“The art style is cool for a cartoon show but not for a hype post. Foul.”
The 19-year-old added: “Y’all I know it is a cartoon show but I think I would prefer to be drawn as a Bratz art style and not this. This makes us all look so ugly.”
The American’s doubles partner and world No 5 Jessica Pegula voiced her agreement, replying to Gauff: ““Hahahahhaha we are ugly af,” she wrote.
Rising American star Ben Shelton, who was also depicted in the cartoon, added: “I better not find out who did this.”
American players Sebastian Korda, Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Emma Navarro were also featured in the post.
On Monday Gauff said her initial posts were meant to be funny, not serious, but she reiterated that the image had made all the Americans look bad.
“People thought I was being serious, that I was actually mad with it,” Gauff said. “And I realize TikTok humor is very different than Twitter. I was like, no, I wasn’t mad. We looked awful (smiling).”
Gauff said Shelton had posted first about the story, then Pegula got involved, texting her about it. “We were just laughing at each person, we were laughing at Sebi (Korda)’s, I think Ben and Sebi had the worst ones.
Coco Gauff opened her Australian Open campaign with a straight-sets win
“I know it was from a cartoon, and the artist did great with the cartoon. I just don’t know if I want myself drawn as that art style . . . but we did not look good at all.”
Gauff said she had been sitting in her room all day on Sunday so had ample time to comment on the USTA post.
“I was just bored and commenting and making fun of it, because everybody else was making fun of us, how bad we looked,” she said. “Then, yeah, I saw on Twitter people thought I was serious, but I wasn’t. It was all in jokes.
“I did DM the USTA account and I was, like, what was the thought process behind this, as a joke. They never responded. I got left on read by USTA, which sucks. But, you know, it is what it is.”
Gauff began her Australian Open campaign on Monday as she brushed aside Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-3 6-0 in exactly an hour, winning nine games in a row to set up a second-round clash with countrywoman Caroline Dolehide.
The match was Gauff’s first at a grand slam after her US Open win in September and afterwards she said: “I felt good. I was a little bit nervous coming in today. Probably you could tell. I was able to just calm down and then play, not my best, but good tennis from that point.”
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