Just champ things 🏆 (via @CocoGauff)
Greg Rusedski believes that Coco Gauff's personality and star power will bring in a wider audience who are not necessarily tennis fans. He also hopes that the young player's success will lead to more rivalries among WTA players.
19-year-old Gauff had a dream run at the US Open earlier this month, defeating the likes of Mirra Andreeva, Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Ostapenko, and Karolina Muchova to set up a clash with Aryna Sabalenka in the final. Once there, Gauff ousted the new World No. 1, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, to lift her first-ever Grand Slam trophy.
As a result, Gauff has moved up to World No. 3 in the WTA Ranking and has gained a lot of new fans, many of whom watched her matches more for her than for the sport itself.
Speaking on Tennis Channel's Inside-In podcast, former British No. 1 Rusedski praised Gauff and said that he hopes for her to form some great rivalries in the women's game along with Sabalenka and World No. 2 Iga Swiatek.
"I think what we need is, we need a rivalry in the women's game especially. Because in the men's game, you've got Carlos, the young buck, vs Novak Djokovic, the legend of our sport. You know, you need a Coco-Swiatek, you need a Coco-Sabalenka. You need a group that's playing in Majors finals or semis week in and week out," he said.
Rusedski then went on to talk about how Gauff could become one of the great stars of tennis that get people hooked on the sport.
"I look back and part of why I loved tennis growing up as a kid was John McEnroe-Bjorn Borg finals, Martina [Navratilova] and Chrissie [Evert], the longest and the greatest rivalry in tennis, playing over 80 times.
"That's what people want to see and also, Coco brings another audience to the sport who aren't tennis fans and that is a big plus," he added.
Just champ things 🏆 (via @CocoGauff)