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Coco Gauff is still chasing the pinnacle associated with winning, but the pursuit of perfection may be the 19-year-old’s undoing.
in her new Fashion In the cover story, Gauff revealed the advice Serena Williams gave her to help balance her desire for perfection and winning.
“It was kind of like: ‘Focus on your growth and your own success rate, not other people’s,'” Goff recalled.
Gauff was just 15 when she faced Venus Williams at Wimbledon and won, and there was no denying she was scared. “When I walked on the field, I put music in my ears because I didn’t want to see or hear the crowd. There were a lot of times during that game I didn’t even look at the scoreboard because I didn’t want to see her name ,” she recalled.
She was grateful that Venus was her rival and not Serena. Goff felt she “wasn’t ready for Serena at the time.” Adding, “I didn’t know about playing Serena at Wimbledon, I felt like it would mess up my story.”
However, she does want the chance to play both Venus and Serena. “If I had a perfect world, I would play both games, but Serena retired and I played Venus twice. In my perfect world, I would play Venus once and Serena once.”
Venus Williams and Coco Gauff shake hands on day one of Wimbledon 2019
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When it comes to perfectionism, her coach Brad Gilbert calls it Goff’s “kryptonite.”
I shared, “I told her, ‘Chasing perfection doesn’t exist. It makes you miserable, chasing it. And you’ll never be satisfied with doing good.’ (…) This “better than you need to be” thing This approach will cost you a lot of matching. For her part, Goff admits it’s a work in progress, noting, “I’m trying to do more of, you know, take the good shots and give myself as much praise as criticism.” “
Today, she no longer focuses so much on victory and perfection, but instead focuses on the “bigger plan” God has in store. Gauff still plans to win the U.S. Open, Wimbledon, or medal at the Olympics.