Coco Gauff's ex-coach has opened up about how difficult the pressure became, with one area in particular causing this.
Gauff has become a superstar of women's tennis. She rose to global stardom after winning last year's US Open final. This was with Brad Gilbert as her coach, who joined her team after the 2023 Wimbledon Championships.
The 20-year-old received an extraordinary three million dollars for her efforts at Flushing Meadows. Gauff spoke about how she treated herself with that prize money, with the answer being quite an interesting one for tennis fans.
However, Gauff's first breakthrough came at Wimbledon in 2019, when she made the fourth-round when just 15-years-old. This was achieved with Jean-Christophe Faurel as her coach, who held that role until December 2020.
It was recently reported that Faurel would rejoin Gauff's team to work alongside Gilbert. This is a fascinating development, and hopefully, Gauff will speak more about this next week at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.
This makes remarks Faurel made about the pressure of coaching Gauff fascinating. He spoke about the pressure he faced to turn the American's forehand into a huge weapon, as reported by We Love Tennis.
"For example, we all know that Coco's forehand grip is very controversial. On this subject I was harassed, the player's entourage can be very "painful", I am thinking of her agent or other advisors."
"Behind the scenes, at one point, there was a lot of talk, this take absolutely had to be changed, Coco had to send missiles, etc. So, as the pressure became a little unbearable."
Faurel then mentioned the help he received from Gauff's father on this issue. The Frenchman said he made sure this was not an issue that Faurel had to deal with ever again.
"I went to see Coco's father. He received me and listened to me. At the end of the interview, he said to me: “The next one who bothers you with this, you send it to me. There were no more problems afterwards with this famous forehand shot. I was then able to work on what I deemed good for her."
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