Renowned coach Eric Riley admits that the work that Coco Gauff did to win the US Open in 2023 won't win it or any other Grand Slam in 2024 and she needs to keep improving in order to attain further success.
Riley who coached Pam Shriver in the latter half of her career as well as doubles Grand Slam winner, Lisa Raymond said that having a superb coach in Brad Gilbert though will keep in her in good stead and that he won't let her standards slip down. The American teenager won the ASB Classic in Auckland to start the year, but was poor at times at the Australian Open. Albeit still reached the semi-finals losing to Aryna Sabalenka who gained US Open revenge.
"Now Coco won the US Open, and she followed it up with a Grand Slam semi right? That's exceptional. It's much easier to climb the ranks when you're an underdog than when you're expected to win," he said on the Tennis Channel Inside-In podcast.
"Obviously, Coco Gauff having Brad Gilbert in her corner, who's an experienced coach, that's really going to be good for them because he's not going to let her slip," he said.
"Because he understands that what won the US Open, the quality of the work she did to win the US Open [in 2023] is not going to win in 2024, it's not going to win a Major. So, Brad knows that and she's going to have to play better this year and she's going to have to improve."
"Which means she has to, like I said earlier, you gotta work on weaknesses, you gotta build confidence, you have to have purposeful practice where you've got to work your tail off because you've got a target on your back. It doesn't get easy now, it gets harder."