"It almost brings me to tears" - Gauff on putting too much pressure on herself

Coco Gauff says she was "crazy" to put so much pressure on herself at the start of her career but the realisation that fans support her regardless of success leaves her close to tears.

Gauff said her emergence as a precocious 15-year-old when she beat Venus Williams at Wimbledon in 2019 blurred her own expectations. The now 18-year-old – selected to train with Patrick Mouratoglou aged 10 - has been earmarked for greatness since childhood, but on reflection, she was applying too much pressure.

Asked what she would say to a younger self, Gauff said:

“I would say, ‘you’re crazy, you’re putting so much pressure on yourself. She was crazy.”

She further added:

“People come up to me and say they support me regardless of whether I win or lose, and it almost brings me to tears. Because when I was younger, even 15 or 16, I would think that people would only like me if I won.”