'Not Enough To Win Slam': Gauff Aware She Needs To Have More Weapons
WTA
Coco Gauff emerged as a tennis phenom which brought a lot of expectations onto her shoulders at a young age.
Those expectations are something she embraces as she wants to do well, she wants to win Grand Slams and break records. That's fine and normal, but actually doing it is a totally different thing. It's something she's yet to achieve, which caused some to lose belief in her even though she came close by making her way to a final last year at Roland Garros.
A pro on the WTA Tour for a few years now, Gauff talked about the early expectations put on her due to her early breakout during her most recent run in Washington. She's currently embracing the process of just getting better and working towards her goals, as she admitted at the 2023 Citi Open.
I think it's because a lot of people expected, you know, a lot from me so early on, so you kind of alter your way of thinking, even though that's not what you thought. I really told myself going into this transition that I wasn't going to pressure myself on winning right away.
I think I can win, but, you know, it's going to -- I wanted to win in a particular type of way, and I felt like the matches in the past I wasn't winning I was really -- I mean, I am on the more athletic side, and I have a good serve and I think I was winning matches and I have a good mentality. I think I was winning matches, like, on that.
To really get to that next level Gauff needs to improve a few things. Most of all she needs to improve the forehand, something she already confirmed is in her offseason plans. Legendary coach Rick Macci was named as one of the options for Gauff and in an exclusive interview with us, Macci explained what he would do to make it the best forehand on Tour.
Whether they team up or not remains to be seen but she's fully aware that she needs an upgrade if she hopes to win Slams in the future.
But, you know, I don't think it's enough to win a slam. So I needed to be more aggressive. I need to play the first-strike tennis, and I need to find a way to blend all those things and make it one. I think that's the way I did today.
Not saying it's going to make me win a Grand Slam, US Open, or even next year, but I do think this is the path I need to go. If I go through my career without winning one, I do think I can say at least I'm doing the steps now to kind of make that happen, if that makes sense.
