Coco Gauff has been told she is unstable by former world No. 1 Dinara Safina, who spoke more positively about Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka.
Gauff enjoyed a stunning last few weeks of the 2024 season. She split with coach Brad Gilbert after a disappointing grass court and North American hardcourt season and appointed Matt Daly to replace him.
That move proved inspired. Gauff won her second WTA 1000 tournament at the China Open, the first event she played with Daly in her team. She performed excellently against Karolina Muchova in the final.
Even more significant success followed a few weeks later at the WTA Finals. Gauff secured the second-biggest title of her career (after the US Open) by triumphing in a thrilling final against Qinwen Zheng.
The American was able to silence many of her doubters during the final few weeks of the season. She had not won a title since the season's opening week at the ASB Classic until her late surge.
However, Gauff's overall year was less impressive than Sabalenka's or Swiatek's. Sabalenka finished as the year-end No. 1 after winning the Australian Open, US Open, and other titles.
Not playing during the entire Asian swing, which fans recently discovered was due to testing positive for a banned substance, cost Swiatek in the race to be the year-end No. 1 player on the WTA Tour.
Swiatek's terrific opening half of the season should not be forgotten, though. She won the French Open and an incredible four WTA 1000 titles, including two victories in finals against Sabalenka in Madrid and Rome.
Safina recently revealed in an interview that she had an opportunity to coach Sabalenka in 2019 but could not commit to the role as quickly as the Belarusian wanted. That may have been a blessing in disguise since Sabalenka's relationship with Anton Dubrov has been successful.
In the same interview with Championat, Safina said the WTA Tour is not as stable as when she played and that Sabalenka and Swiatek are the only players who could justifiably be described that way.
"In my time, there were more stable players. There were Serena and Venus Williams, Davenport, Mauresmo, Henin, Sharapova, Clijsters and so on."
"Everyone was stable all year round, they rarely had easy losses. The top 10 was very tight, you couldn’t touch the girls. And now someone can fail three or four tournaments and then return to the top 10. Now there is Gauff, Pegula, but they are all unstable. Only Sabalenka and Swiatek played the whole season almost without slumps."
Fans of Gauff might feel that description is harsh. Despite struggling with her second serve throughout much of the season, the 20-year-old still regularly reached the semifinals and quarterfinals until her great run towards the end.
Gauff's form in the final weeks was the most significant reason she finished the year ranked No. 3, but being pretty consistent throughout most of the season also helped, meaning there is a solid argument for her not being unstable.
0 Comments