“No, he did not choose Zendaya over me”: Coco Gauff reveals why coach Brad Gilbert did not join for Stuttgart Open

America’s tennis star Coco Gauff has revealed that her coach Brad Gilbert did not snub her to attend a Challengers event. The 20-year-old is often regarded as one of the most highly-rated players currently playing in the women’s singles category.

Gauff is currently taking part in the Stuttgart Open where she won the round of 16 contest against Sachia Vickery with a score of 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. The current world number three was asked after the match why her coach was not present in the event, to which she responded by saying that Gilbert was only supposed to come for big events and she decided to ask the coach to step back.

"No, he did not choose Zendaya over me (smiling),” she said. “I think I kind of told him to take a step back, especially with starting with J.C., I wanted him to just be able to work on it on his own and play a tournament by himself. And also, like, we are going to have two tournaments together. We're going to spend a lot of time together. If you know Brad, it's good to take a break sometimes.

"Yeah, he's supposed to come to Madrid. He's not here. I think when I started with him, he was never going to be coming to every tournament. Just mainly the big ones, especially in the European part of the swing, I think, most of the time. We started in the U.S. swing, so it was a lot easier for him to travel. Even in Australia, he wasn't in Auckland. He came to Australia.”