"Talk about pressure": John McEnroe sees weight of expectation for Coco Gauff to emulate Serena Williams

Thursday, 29 August 2024 at 18:00

Coco Gauff's weight of expectation is one that can only be compared to Serena Williams as John McEnroe assessed the pressure that the US Open champion is under.

Speaking to Eurosport, he said that it is especially the case when she isn't playing the best such is the case right now with the American admittedly not performing as she did last year.

But a Grand Slam is a new tournament and in swatting aside her opening two ties including Tatjana Maria, it is one in which the American can now build. But it is often the later rounds that do pose the problems as opposed to early on. Emma Navarro at Wimbledon showed that.

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“She [Gauff] has high hopes,” McEnroe told Eurosport. “I compare her a little bit to Alcaraz when people say the guy will break Novak’s record - the guy has four and Novak [Djokovic] has 24.

“I put Coco in the same situation as the Williams sisters, people say ‘she’s the next American hope, of course she will get 20 or so majors that Serena got’ - talk about putting pressure on someone.

“There is a lot being asked of Coco Gauff and I think she felt the pressure at times. She’s had a fairly rough time recently - it’s tough to go from clay to grass back to clay.”

“When you finally get over the hump and win a major, which is what she did last year at the US Open, it was huge for American tennis that she was able to follow in the footsteps of the Williams sisters,” McEnroe continued.

“There are a lot of high hopes for her to win multiple majors. The reason she won this tournament last year was because of the fans, they really helped her in some tight matches.

“She has high hopes to go deep into this event.”

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