After Andy Roddick heavily praised Coco Gauff's father Corey during his time working on the US Open champion's serve, the 19-year-old was pleased that he said the kind words he did and removed the stigma that surrounds black fathers in America.
Roddick spoke on his podcast recently about how amid a history of fathers not being great towards female players, Gauff is the antithesis of that with Corey being involved with his daughter since the start of her career and helping to keep a level head amid all of the hype that has surrounded his daughter.
“It’s been spoken about a little bit but it needs to be spoken about more. Especially in our sport where there has been a negative history of fathers of women tennis players being psychopaths and being irresponsible to the total human. Not the tennis but the total human. Corey Gauff was here also and his ability to not be the center of attention, doesn’t need the information to come from him, that is rare and it sounds like something that should be very obvious and it’s not. In the history of our sport it is not. There are a lot of cautionary tales and I won’t name them out of respect for the people who are on the bad side of those cautionary tales but it has been rampant in our sport," said Roddick on his podcast, Served.
“The guy has studied and he is dialed in and for him to kind of take a back seat and let Brad be Brad, which is a weird orbit in itself, and let me, who he doesn’t know have a say in her serve for a couple of days, like Bravo. It needs to be said over and over again. I hope this creates precedent for other tennis parents, especially of young females.”
This was quizzed to Gauff during Doha press who was pleased and praised Roddick for his thoughts on Corey Gauff and also for killing the stigma.
“For me it was a great thing that Andy said that, and I'm really happy that he said that, because, you know, in tennis there are situations where parents in general in the past have been not as kind and kind of terrible to their kids. And I know that they have that stigma. The world in general, especially in America with Black fathers, it's always a thing that Black fathers aren't in their kids' lives or that they are not great leaders or households, great fathers.
"So when Andy said that, I think people actually listened, because I always talk about how great my dad is, but some people believe me and some people don't, but my dad is truly a great father. He's done everything to get me where I am, and I'm glad that other people see that, because he's not the type of person to be in the front spotlight. He's not the type of person to try to take anything away from my accomplishments, but he definitely is -- everything I have accomplished are definitely his accomplishments too, because I wouldn't be here without him.
"I just am glad a little piece of the world gets to see how great a person he is, because he won't do it, he won't shout from the rooftops how great a person he is. I think it's my job and my brothers' job to make sure the world knows how great he is. And not only him but my mom too. They're truly a team. I wouldn't be here without my mom as well. I'm grateful to have blessed and great parents. And I'm really glad Andy said kind words about him, especially just with everything going on in this sport, tennis, there are fathers who are a little bit, you know, tough and maybe not the greatest people. So I'm lucky that I got one of the good ones.”
Coco Gauff says there’s a notion in America that black fathers aren’t great fathers, she’s glad Andy Roddick said kind words about her dad & people listened: “For me it was a great thing that Andy said that, and I'm really happy that he said that, because, you know, in tennis…
