Coco Gauff was a victim of negative comments, like many professional athletes, and it made her realize quite a few things.
Until a couple of days ago, the American was still a teenager. Breaking through as a 15-year-old certainly isn't normal when it comes to professional sports, and that's what Gauff's career has been so far - not normal.
Of course, that's in positive meaning only, as in her last US Open as a teenager, she managed to win her first Grand Slam title. However, being a teenager in the spotlight also brought its challenges.
Early on in her career, Gauff's game used to be quite volatile, as she was just getting used to traveling around the WTA Tour, and her results weren't as consistent as they are now.
That lost money to many bettors, who likely saw Gauff as this 15-year-old prodigy who was going to win every single match she played. Logically, that was unrealistic, and that's, unfortunately, why she also received many negative messages and comments.
After her most recent win over Yue Yuan at the 2024 Indian Wells Open, the 20-year-old discussed how the negative comments impacted her.
It definitely was a thing in the past where I would take the comments to heart. I started on tour at 15, and went from overwhelming positive response to now there's pressure that you have to win and to where every loss was negative comments."
"Honestly, I didn't know anything about that as a junior, didn't know anything about betters, to be honest, didn't realize how many people bet on the sport and how nasty the comments can get. I was taking them to heart because I didn't know other players were experiencing it as well. I thought it was just a target thing."
Despite being only 20 years old, Gauff will soon be one of the veterans on the WTA Tour, and her position will also change from a player who receives advice to a player who gives advice.
The American will want to help the upcoming generation of players, and one piece of advice she would give them is not to read the negative comments or, when reading them, not to take them to heart.
"Then I realized almost every player or pretty much every pro player deals with it in some type of way. I took it not personal. It was definitely a growing thing. Definitely something I will, I guess, urge our players, younger players coming up, just a warning, like, it's not personal. It's just unfortunately some nasty people out there and not to take it to heart. "
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