"If you want to get to twenty, you gotta win two for ten years" - Rennae Stubbs labels Coco Gauff's Grand Slam tally as 'disappointing'

Coco Gauff is one of the best players on the WTA Circuit. Currently sitting world number three, she is targeting to become the best that there has ever been, which can be done by outshining the career of Serena Williams. This is something that Rennae Stubbs believes is out of her reach.

At the age of 21-years-old, Gauff has cemented herself as one of the top players in the world. She has already collected two Grand Slam titles and three WTA 1000 triumphs in her 14 titles collected. The American number one burst onto the scene in 2019 when she made a run to the Wimbledon fourth round in her debut Grand Slam campaign at the age of 15.

Four years later, and she would achieve her dream at the US Open where she won her maiden major title at Flushing Meadows. This was over a year after she made the Roland Garros final. She would lose that final on clay but earlier this year she turned the wrongs into rights as she won the French Open title against world number one Aryna Sabalenka. Overall, this has bumped her Grand Slam tally up to two. While very impressive, Stubbs believes that it is not at the level where she would be challenging the career of Williams.

"That’s her words, not mine. She has consistently sort of put it out there and not been afraid to say that she wants to be as great as Serena Williams. And I’m like, okay, well, they won a lot of major titles when they were eighteen, nineteen, twenty," she said on the Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast.

"Okay, you’ve got two unbelievable, at your age to do what you’ve done. So if you want to get to twenty, you gotta win two for ten years, or you’re gonna win a lot in a short period of time, depending on how long you want to play for. So I think in some respects that’s disappointing because she wants to rack them up,"

After the Roland Garros success, it looked like Gauff would continue sailing up the order, winning more titles and even threatening the world number one spot. However, it would turn out to be a slog. Her serve suffered greatly, leaving her very vulnerable when on the court. She racked up a huge number of double faults as her form fell off a cliff. Despite this, it did not stop Gauff in her tracks. She continued to plough on, eventually being rewarded with a number of gritty and determined performances to win the Wuhan Open.

Stubbs looked at her very balanced personality at such a young age. "The other part of me is like, Coco Gauff is such a balanced human being that she has also talked about, 'Look, I know that winning doesn’t define me as a person.' And she talked about that a lot this year," Stubbs acknowledged. "She has got this different perspective on winning and losing as well... In that respect, she would look at this year as a success, right, and be like, I’m doing great, I’m making a lot of money, I won another major title."

Gauff is enjoying her time away from the court and spotlight, preparing herself for a resurging 2026 campaign. She will begin it at the United Cup from January 2-11, where she and Taylor Fritz will look to regain their title in Australia. Following that is the first Grand Slam of the year in the Australian Open. Gauff made it to the quarter-finals in 2025 and will be hoping for a much-improved run in Melbourne. The event will commence from January 18 - February 1.