Young tennis star Coco Gauff shares her Olympic journey

America’s young tennis star Coco Gauff has opened up about the experience of representing the country at the Paris Olympics. The 20-year-old is already regarded as one of the best women’s tennis players in the singles category, along with Poland’s Iga Swiatek and Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka.

Gauff is coming into the competition on the back of a disappointing Canadian Open, where she was knocked out of the tournament after losing in the round of 16 to Russia’s Diana Shnaider in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-1. Before that, the Atlanta-born star participated in the Paris Olympics, where she represented the country in three different categories in the mega-event. She was also the flag bearer for Team USA along with the legendary basketball star LeBron James.

Gauff, while talking to the Cincinnati Open official website, talked about the experience of representing the country in the mega-event. She said carrying the flag with such a legendary basketball star was cool. She also stated that it was ‘nice’ to see the country ‘united’ during the mega-event despite having a lot of ‘political turmoil’.

“It was really cool. I wasn’t expecting to receive that [honor] at all,” she said. “Doing it alongside LeBron was very cool. It was nice to see the country united because of sports. There’s a lot of political turmoil going on in the country. I hope that it stays as peaceful and respectful as possible, regardless of who you want to win.”

Gauff did not have a great outing in the mega-event. In the singles category, she was knocked out after losing in the third round to Croatia’s Donna Vekic in straight sets with a score of 7-6, 6-2. In the double category, she and her partner Jessica Pegula lost in the second round to the pair of Karolína Muchova and Linda Noskova with a score of 2-6, 6-4, 10-5. In the mixed doubles event, she and her partner Taylor Fritz lost to the pair of Gabriela Dabrowski and Felix Auger-Aliassime in the quarterfinal with a score of 7-6, 3-6, 10-8.

Talking about her own performance in the competition, Gauff admitted that the results ‘didn’t go’ how she planned but stated that the experience of playing in the competition will stay with her ‘for the rest’ of her life. “Just playing the Olympics, in general, representing my country, was a great experience,” she said. “Obviously, it didn’t go how I wanted, but it was an experience of a lifetime. The people I got to meet, the lessons I got to learn, I think I’ll take for the rest of my life.”