Coco Gauff had to deal with a lot of emotions during her fourth-round match at the 2023 US Open against Caroline Wozniacki.
Taking the WTA's former world no. 1 is never easy, and the 19-year-old certainly knew it before she stepped onto the court against Wozniacki. Eventually, Gauff was able to beat the experienced Dane in three sets, but it wasn't without a small slump in the second set.
During the second set, the American's patience boiled over, as she couldn't execute the game plan properly, and precise Wozniacki broke her serve in the eighth game of the set, taking a 5-3 lead, and eventually wrapping up the set, 6-3.
It was when she lost her serve and gave the Dane a chance to serve for the set that things seemingly boiled over for Gauff. Listening to constant advice from her team, which includes experienced Brad Gilbert and soft-spoken Pere Riba, Gauff wanted to take care of the things by herself, as she silenced her team.
"Please stop. Stop talking."
Emotions aren't anything new in the world of professional sports, and in the past, also the 23-time Grand Slam champion, Novak Djokovic, admitted to 'torturing' his team. Therefore, this interaction is certainly not going to impact the relationship between Gauff and her team, especially after she got the win.
Yet, it will be interesting to see how Gauff deals with similar situations in the future. As she noted during her post-match press conference, she knew that she lost the set because of making too many mistakes, something that frustrated her.
"I did lose that second set off of a lot of errors, to be honest. I was trying to tell myself just to be ready to play an extra ball, 'cause she's a player, when you think you win the point, it's not over."
Moreover, Gauff had only words of praise for her team after the victory. It's obvious that Gauff's recent success on the WTA Tour started when she added the new coaching duo to her team, and that's why she spoke highly of Gilbert and also Riba.
"Yeah, I think he's brought a lot to me. The scouting, I think it's incredible. He knows basically every player, probably just from commentating, knows how to play them. I think the scouting reports are quite accurate. Sometimes you have to change things up. Today I had to change things up. That's also the player."
"Also with Pere, I think for me he's been doing more of the day-to-day stuff. Brad is not always able to be there with ESPN and everything. He's been helping me a lot just with the footwork and things like that, the decision-making. I think they work together."
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