Coco Gauff reached her eighth WTA final as a teenager and emulated another feat of her idol, Serena Williams.
Gauff isn't fond of the comparisons with Williams, but it's pretty tough not to when she's matching a lot of what only Serena did. Gauff has been competing on the WTA Tour for five years now, and despite being a seasoned pro by now, she's still officially a teenager.
That's insane when you just think about it, but more importantly, she's a very successful teenager. By beating compatriot Emma Navarro in Auckland, Gauff reached her 8th WTA final.
Since 2000, the only other American that's ever done that as a teenager was Serena Williams, and the country had a lot of great players since then.
We've seen several great teenagers from the country as well, but again, Gauff is only in the company of Serena Williams, which speaks volumes as to how strong she's just been.
So, despite not liking being compared with Williams, she's going to get compared because she's just so similar to her. Obviously, she's her own player with a distinct style and trajectory but the similarities are pretty interesting.
Time will tell whether Gauff ever reached a similar level because the standard that Williams set seems impossible to reach. After all, she's the greatest female tennis player of all time, while Gauff only recently won her maiden Grand Slam.
She's very hungry, though, and is actively chasing that second major trophy. Her first chance to get it done will come up shortly at the Australian Open, but first, it's time for the ASB Classic Auckland final against Elina Svitolina.
The Ukrainian is looking to add another trophy to her big collection while Gauff is hoping to successfully defend her trophy won last year, and extend her win streak in New Zealand to ten matches.
0 Comments