Former
British player Mark Petchey defended his statement that
Coco Gauff is the
greatest female athlete in the history of tennis.
Coco
Gauff's incredible North American tour led her to her highest WTA ranking as
world No. 3, and she won three titles: her first WTA 500 in Washington, then
her first WTA 1000 in Cincinnati, and finally her first Grand Slam at the US
Open defeating new world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.
In a recent
episode of the Inside In podcast, former tennis player Mark Petchey praised
Coco Gauff's achievements and even referred to her as "the best women’s
athlete to ever play tennis." Former American tennis player Tim Mayotte
responded to the comments, saying it's too early to make such a claim.
"Yikes!
Guys! Please! Its abit early. If she lost at the Open....," Mayotte posted
on X.
However,
Petchey reiterated his point and illustrated it by citing Gael Monfils on the
male tour:
"Tim,
I love your opinions about tennis firstly and because of that I wanted to
reply. I was making the observation I believe Coco is the best female athlete I
have ever seen. What does winning Majors have to do with that?" he posted.
"When
we talk about the best male tennis athletes most agree Gael Monfils is the best
we have had recently. No one then starts talking about his lack of Majors but
many agree he is arguably the best," he added.
"I
don’t believe the metric for best ever athlete should be Majors. However, as
you are someone who believes in technique as much as I do, isn’t the fact Coco
won the US Open with a forehand, most agree is suboptimal in terms of
technique, further testament to the argument she is could be the best tennis
female athlete ever?" he said about youngstar Coco Gauff.
