Coco Gauff is not an ace in break-ins and hold-ups. The 19-year-old American has rightly invited herself to the elite table of world tennis since her emergence, at the age of 15, on the lawn of Wimbledon, where entry codes are not trifled with. But, since the start of the summer tour across the Atlantic, the 6e world is breaking down the barriers one after the other.
After lifting the trophy in Washington on August 6, his first in the WTA 500, the child prodigy of American tennis triumphed in the category above. In Cincinnati, on August 20, she offered her first Masters 1000 by beating the Czech Karolina Muchova in the final, whom she meets again on Friday September 8 in the semi-finals of the US Open, the last meeting of the Grand Slam of the season.
In Ohio, for the first time in eight confrontations, Gauff finally found the solution against world number 1 Iga Swiatek. She got rid of the Pole in the semi-finals (7-6, 3-6, 6-4), from whom she had never taken a single set before. A victory which partly sounded like a click. “It gives me confidence and shows that I can compete at this level. I may not beat her every time from now on, but this victory proved to me that I can do it, she commented without falling into excess confidence. I don’t think I’m close to the highest potential of my game, because there are still plenty of things to improve. » Starting with her forehand, where the problem lies most with this stubborn young woman, who has said since she was 6 that she wants to become the best tennis player of all time.
A questioning
After her final at Roland-Garros in 2022, the one whose career is managed by Team 8 – the management agency of Roger Federer and his historic agent Tony Godsick – failed to reach the final level leading to the Holy Grail , with a succession of disappointments: quarter-final at the 2022 US Open, round of 16 in Melbourne at the end of January, again quarter-final on Parisian clay in the spring, before an entry defeat at Wimbledon in July.
Stung in her pride, Gauff questioned herself by making changes in her team. The Spaniard Pere Riba arrived at the end of June alongside him. At the end of July, she then called on a familiar face on the circuit in the person of Brad Gilbert, former coach of Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, the last representative (male) of the star-spangled banner to have triumphed in a Major. It was at the US Open in 2003.
Twenty years ago, Roddick also hired him during the summer. Their collaboration was immediately fruitful with a Montreal-Cincinnati-US Open triple, then the world number 1 position at the end of the season. “I’ve had offers in recent years, but I was looking for the right player. I was seriously considering the idea of coaching again, but first and foremost I was considering [de le faire auprès d’]a young American »explained, on 1er september, on the US Open website the 62-year-old coach out of retirement, known for his best-seller Winning Ugly (“win ugly”, in French), published in 1994.
Comparisons to Serena Williams
Since Brad Gilbert has been at her bedside, Gauff seems to have turned a corner, she who until then had only won in WTA 250 tournaments (Linz, Parma, Auckland). “It’s not so much the content of the speech I’m given that has changed, it’s more the way it’s delivered to me. And hearing it from him helps me a lot”said the 6e World Cup, which has won 14 of its last 15 matches (current series). Tuesday September 5, in barely an hour, pushed by some 20,000 American supporters of the vertiginous Arthur-Ashe court, the American crushed the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko (faller of Swiatek in the eighth) in two sets 6-0, 6- 2, with a first round completed in twenty minutes.
Gauff thus offered her first semi-final in New York (her second in a Grand Slam), following in the footsteps of Serena Williams, last teenager American to be invited to the last four. Since the start of her career, the youngest cannot avoid comparison with her glorious elder, who retired twelve months ago. “We are both black American tennis players, who grew up in the same area, who were coached by their father… I don’t mind people associating us. Becoming the next Serena is impossible anyway. No one will ever be Serena, even if they win 23 Grand Slams. I’m just going to be me”, insisted Gauff, on August 25, in a interview at The magazine team.
It’s a safe bet that the comparison would be on everyone’s lips again if she were to triumph in the US Open final on Saturday.