By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday September 8, 2023
Throughout a dialog between Coco Gauff, Chris Evert and different pundits on the ESPN desk on Thursday evening on the US Open, the subject of Serena Williams was broached.
Becoming that within the first yr that Serena has not graced the US Open together with her presence, a product of her legacy has shot to the foreground and captivated the tennis world together with her tennis and character.
19-year-old Gauff is thrilled to be inspiring legions of tennis followers in New York and around the globe, however she’s fast to confess that she’s no Serena – and by no means will probably be.
“Serena’s Serena – she’s the GOAT,” she stated. “I’ll hope to do half of what she [has done], however I am not going to match myself to her. She’s somebody I seemed as much as, however to be in the identical stat line as her (because the youngest American to succeed in the ultimate on the US Open since Williams herself in 1999) means so much to me. She’s my idol.”
Gauff, who confronted legend Venus Williams in her first main match, at Wimbledon in 2019, nonetheless regrets that she by no means bought to face Queen Serena in a WTA match.
“I believe the one remorse that I’ll have for the remainder of my life isn’t having the ability to play her,” she stated.
Gauff says she’s simply proud to be shifting the needle ahead for American tennis, and though she’s the one American vying for a title this weekend, she feels she’s simply part of an even bigger motion.
“I am nonetheless completely satisfied to only be a product of her legacy and be out right here,” Gauff stated, including: “I assume for this match I am doing nicely for American tennis, however we even have an enormous gun tomorrow in Ben Shelton enjoying, he is my good friend (referring to Shelton’s semifinal with Novak Djokovic (Djokovic gained in straights).
“I believe that we now have thrilling tennis for this nation popping out with me, Jessica Pegula, Tommy Paul, Frances – so many people are doing what I believe it pushes us to be higher.
Studying from her first main last: “I don’t suppose I believed in myself then.”
Gauff seems ahead to taking her shot at changing into the tenth lady to win the US Open title as an adolescent, and he or she says she is carrying far more self-belief than she had final yr, when she misplaced to Iga Swiatek within the Roland-Garros last.
“I realized so much from the previous,” she stated. “In my last on the French Open I believe I put an excessive amount of on the second and on Saturday I am gonna go on the market and simply play prefer it’s one other tennis match. I approached the match right this moment. I instructed myself, I am simply gonna go on the market have enjoyable and play the tennis I understand how to play.
“That is how you must strategy it typically. I believe I play good tennis after I’m essentially the most relaxed, and after I performed the French Open last I believe I used to be targeted an excessive amount of on the expectations. That I needed to win, that I would like to do that, and now it’s extra that I am right here as a result of I wish to and I imagine in myself – I do not suppose I believed in myself then.”
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