"I just want to win as many Grand Slams as possible" - Coco Gauff on being inspired by Serena Williams

American tennis phenom Coco Gauff recently spoke on her goals, ambitions and desire to emulate compatriot WTA legend Serena Williams.

The 20-year old is currently competing at the 2024 Roland Garros tournament, where she breezed past Julia Avdeeva in the opening round. A runner-up at the event in 2022, Gauff would like to clear the final hurdle and leave Paris with the trophy, which would be her second Grand Slam title.

Following her victory over 6-1 6-1 over Avdeeva, the reigning US Open champion engaged in a post-match interview with The Tennis Channel. Gauff opened up on her dream to become the world's greatest tennis player, following the likes of the retired Serena Williams.

"I think its something I definitely want to trend to," said Gauff. "I think for me, I just want to win as many slams as possible and being inspired by Serena Williams. I think she is the one and true and only goat. But I think just being inspired by her, it just allowed me to make my dreams as limitless as possible.
"And I was taught from a young age to make your dreams as big as possible. Even if they don't feel realistic just because I don't know, I feel like you can box yourself in if you say, I just want to get this, and I just want to get that."

Furthermore, Gauff recalled receiving advice from Mary Joe Fernandez in 2019, who told her to change her mindset and focus on winning matches.

"And If I went in my every match of my career, which is something that Mary Joe Fernandez taught me before I played Venus, she told me, you don't go into the match seeing how many games you wanted," added Gauff. "You want to win and go into the believing that you can win and honesty, my mindset before that was to see how many games I could get. And when she told me that, I was like okay, I have to go in to win.
"And that's what I just ended up taking that little thing and applying it to everything that I do and every tournament that I go in and it's not I just want to make the quarterfinals and make the semifinals. I go in believing that I can win."