Gauff Compared To Carlos Alcaraz After She Found Way To 'Tame Her Emotions'
WTA
Coco Gauff was always known as an energetic player, and it was not always a benefit, according to Martina Navratilova, who prefers this new Gauff, who has her emotions under better control.
Gauff has been part of the top of the WTA Tour for a while, and it was only recently that she really started to figure things out. She's been good pretty much since she broke out, but to really get to the next step, she needed to mature.
Maturation was a slow process, as it generally is, and it happened mostly last year. In the span of months, Gauff had what she described as the lowest point in her career and also the best month ever.
The best moment was winning the US Open, but she needed to fall down to get up again, and therein lies the key. During that process, Gauff could control her emotions better than before.
She used to be quite fired up, too much, according to Navratilova, who sees this new Gauff as more level-headed, as she said during a recent column for WTAtennis.com.
"She [Coco Gauff] has found a way to tame her emotions. The first couple years on tour, I thought she was too fired up. I thought she was going to burn out. She’s still a teenager, I know, but she needed to just dial it down."
There are a lot of similarities between Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz in Navratilova's mind. The Spaniard tends to go all out in every rally, which can and is very effective, but it's also not sustainable. Tennis is a sport of picking and choosing your spots, and that's what Gauff had to learn.
"Like Carlos Alcaraz, going all out on every point, every match. You just can’t sustain that, when every point is a match point."
Navratilova also touched upon the forehand which was a pretty big issue. The inclusion of Brad Gilbert helped greatly with that as well.
"I think Brad Gilbert has really helped her with the forehand — don’t stress about it. And find a different way to win. He had to play that way himself. You can only play your best once in a while. You’re just trying to get as close to that as possible."
