Coco Gauff made a surprise admission, explaining that her pre-US Open successful run felt like a fluke.
Very few things about the 2023 US Open champion can be categorized as a fluke because the American player showed quite early in her career that she is the real deal. Beating Venus Williams as a 15-year-old at Wimbledon is certainly a notable feat, and everything she did after that is as well.
Even so, Gauff used the word 'fluke' when describing how she felt leading up to the 2023 US Open, which she ended up winning. The loss to Sofia Kenin at Wimbledon might have been the low point of her career in recent years because it certainly felt like it.
Then, upon returning to the United States, she started to play well, and it seemed like a fluke to her. She wasn't convinced it was going to stick, but it did, as she explained ahead of the 2024 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
"Yeah, no, after Wimbledon I was feeling terrible, so I was, like, I just need to get through the rest of the year mentally and try to push through. My eyes were set on Australia and trying to win that. Then, I don't know, like, everything happened on hard court season. D.C. happened."
"Then Cincinnati happened. You know, even though people were saying I was a contender, all the analysts and all that, I didn't feel like one. I was, like, fluke, I don't know (smiling)."
Gauff honestly admitted that she doubts herself a lot, especially when other people use these superlatives for her name. She struggles with the idea. In the end, it didn't matter because she backed it up on the court, proving it to herself.
"I very often have imposter syndrome, so I didn't have any hopes for anything. After I had a tough match against Laura Siegemund in the first round, I was like, well, I was happy to get out of the first round. I had a lot of tough matches that week at US Open, or two weeks."
"I can't say that I confidently felt like I was going to win that tournament literally until I was in the final, and when I woke up the day to play the final, I just felt like no matter what happened I wasn't going to lose that day. It was a weird feeling to have, but I just felt it."
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