The WTA has welcomed a new Serena Williams: Coco Gauff, the 19-year-old who wants to follow in her idol’s footsteps

About a year and a half ago, one of the best tennis players in history said goodbye to the court and hung up his racquet: Serena Williams. Since then, there has been a void on the WTA Tour that will be difficult to fill. The emergence of a tennis player with Williams’ characteristics is expected to be complicated, given her retirement record of 39 Grand Slam titles (23 individual and 14 doubles titles). However, there is one player who evokes the same feeling that Serena does every time she takes the field. Coco Goughthe star many considered Williams’ successor.

At just 19 years old, he is ranked fourth, but it won’t be long before he reaches the top of the list. Last September, he won his first Grand Slam in tennis. US Open. In fact, she is the youngest tennis player to do so since Williams accomplished the feat in 2001. The two have much more in common than that though, as it’s nearly impossible to look at Goff and not remember Williams. There is much evidence of similarities between this legend and emerging pearls.

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“the williams sisters inspire me “I chose to play tennis because I saw people like me playing the sport, but there weren’t a lot of people like me in the sport,” Gauff said during the New York tournament. In fact. , the 19-year-old girl has been following the sisters since she was a child and started her first career. I only turn on the TV to watch Serena or Venus play. So it’s clear that her game, moves, style and potential are similar to those of her idol.

When she was just 10 years old, Serena’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, offered her a scholarship to attend his academy in Nice, one of the best in the world. Just three seasons later, Gauff reached the U.S. Open junior finals, and the following year, at the age of 14, he won the French Open junior championship. Americans began to dazzle the world with their potential. She made her professional debut on the WTA Tour in 2019 at the Indian Wells Championship and was already lifting weights just weeks later His first drink in Miami.

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In the same year, he received an invitation to participate in Wimbledon He couldn’t refuse. By chance, she had to face Venus Williams in the draw. She was only 15 years old and ranked 313th at the time, but she had already fulfilled a dream. However, if I want to be like my sisters, it will take a lot of work on both a physical and mental level, especially facing the Grand Slams: “They are so intense and you always want to win, and now I have learned to deal with that.” . I think it’s an important part of life and learning, and the more I’m in this position, the more I learn how to deal with stress.”

Just like in the case of the Williams sisters, Coco Gough’s father character, Corey Goff, was crucial for the tennis player to reach where he is today. Corey trained his daughter to excel in the sport, but not as rigorously as Richard Williams. They try basketball, gymnastics or track and field first. Coco, however, was destined to swing a racket. As a result, the American father made a plan of up to 10 years to achieve the goal of young Coco. A plan that ultimately worked.