"My hand was shaking" - Gauff remembers beating Venus Williams at 2019 Wimbledon
WTA
Coco Gauff played one of the biggest matches of her tennis career already in the first round of her first Grand Slam, and now she reflected on that experience.
It doesn't get any bigger than playing against five-time Wimbledon champion and legend of the sport Venus Williams in the first round of a Grand Slam debut, and that's exactly what Gauff had to go through.
On top of that, she was only 15 at the time, but shockingly, she won the match 6-4, 6-4 to reach the second round. Almost four years later, and she's already an established player on the WTA Tour despite still being a teenager.
Gauff now had a chance to reflect on her major debut in an interview with Her Way. The teenager remembered that she initially didn't even realize who she was about to play against.
"Honestly, I didn't realize I was about to play her. It all felt like a dream until we were walking through the corridor and they showed pictures of past champions, and you see her name and her picture up there a couple of times because she's won it a lot. That's when I was like, 'Wow, this is really about to happen.'"
Gauff was naturally very nervous. She admitted that she avoided looking at the scoreboard throughout the match. The reason why she did that was not to remind herself who she was playing against.
"The whole match, I never looked at the scoreboard because I just didn't want my mind to know that I was playing Venus Williams. I just wanted my mind to know I was playing some unknown figure and I think really into the match points when I realized, 'Oh my gosh, I just beat Venus Williams.'"
Gauff won the match, and shaking the hand of a legend was an experience of its own. She remembered that her hand was shaking and also how people talked about their handshake.
"It was such a thrill. I remember my hand was shaking. People were saying how long I shook her hand. It didn't feel that long to me, but when I look back, it was pretty long. I literally grabbed her hand."
