Gauff's Former Coach Deserves Credit As He's Often Forgotten As Part Of Her Success
WTA
According to former WTA player Andrea Petkovic, Coco Gauff's season turned around when Brad Gilbert joined, but Pere Riba deserves some credit as well.
Petkovic was a guest on the Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast, where she talked about many topics on both sides of the sport. Quite a few minutes were spent on Coco Gauff and how she turned around her season after the Wimbledon loss to Sofia Kenin.
She would win a few events, including her maiden Grand Slam at the US Open, which made this year a huge success. It didn't start out that way, and it wasn't until Pere Riba joined as coach that things started to shift.
Brad Gilbert joined not long after that, so it's really hard to pinpoint who deserves bigger credit. Gauff herself always maintained that they worked as a team bouncing off ideas, but Petkovic feels that Riba's role is grossly undersold in recent conversations.
One more sentence to Pere Riba because I think Brad Gilbert had his moment. I think ESPN was milking how great of a coach he is and all those interactions it was great. He's a great coach, I'm not saying he's not, he's a great coach.- Petkovic on Gilbert stealing the spotlight
Riba is not a person who really sticks out in any way but he has a good track record in tennis. Even his recent rehire by Qinwen Zheng shows, that's a pretty popular choice among players, and that wouldn't be the case if he wasn't a good coach.
Obviously he has the results, he has a very good tennis mind also obviously, and he brought a new energy but I know Pere Riba, I saw what he did with Qinwen Zheng. I know that his way of working on the forehand worked for Qinwen and I know it has worked on Coco Gauff's as well. I think a lot of credit goes to him and he was forgotten for my taste, he was forgotten many times because he's done the training.- Petkovic gives credit to Riba
