She's fifteen years old. She just beat five-time champion Venus Williams at Wimbledon. Her name: Coco Gauff 🙌 (via @espnW)
"I want to strive for more and I don't want to only win one": Grand Slam hunger drives Coco Gauff as 2024 begins
WTAMonday, 01 January 2024 at 01:00
Coco Gauff
shared her aspirations for the 2024 season and emphasized that she won't settle
for winning just one Grand Slam throughout her career. A remarkable streak at
the end of 2023 earned her three titles: her first WTA 500 (Washington), first
WTA 1000 (Cincinnati Open), and her maiden Grand Slam (US Open) within just six
weeks.
At 19 years
old, much is still expected from the world No. 3, who will kick off her season
at the ASB Classic on January 1st as the top seed, facing her compatriot Claire
Liu (world No. 98) in the opening match. Upon her arrival in Auckland, she
reflected on her impressive finish in 2023 and her first Grand Slam: “I felt
like I had a clock and I needed to win as a teenager," said Coco Gauff.
The young American swiftly made a name for herself on the WTA Tour after
defeating the 5-times Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the first round of
Wimbledon in 2019 at just 15 years old. Since then, the spotlight has been on
Gauff, and she finally secured the coveted Grand Slam at Flushing Meadows:
"Just for how I started, with Wimbledon and everything, I felt like I just
needed to."
Rise and ambitions of Coco Gauff
"Not with anyone's expectations from my team, but fans and people who
watch the game.” She also recalled the US Open final against Aryna Sabalenka,
who was guaranteed to be the world No. 1 at the end of the tournament:
"That feeling I felt on match point was a high, and I want to continue to
chase that high," said Gauff.
The moment that changed Gauff at the end of the season was Wimbledon, as
she mentioned when, as the 7th seed, she couldn't surpass the first round,
falling to the former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin: "After
Wimbledon, I reached the lowest point of my career, losing that match,"
Gauff said.
"Learning
from it helped me push forward and I think sometimes you need those setbacks to
push you forward,” she added. "Not to wake me up, because I felt like I
always was awake, but realise that maybe you should put less pressure on every
single match," Coco Gauff concluded.
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