By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Tuesday, August 20, 2024
Photo credit: Garrett Ellwood/USTA/US Open
Coco Gauff typically wears headphones when walking on court.
When the 20-year-old Gauff launches her US Open title defense next week, she must tune into the inner instinct to rebound in New York, Hall of Famer Chrissie Evert said today.
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Citing Gauff’s consultations with coaches Jean Christophe Faurel and Brad Gilbert during some recent matches, Evert said it’s time for the Delray Beach-born baseliner to step up and call her own shots. Evert’s comments came during today’s Zoom call she and fellow former No. 1 John McEnroe conducted with the media to promote ESPN’s first-ball-to-last-ball US Open coverage starting on Monday, August 26th at noon on ESPN.
“I think she’s got to trust her instincts when she’s playing a match,” Evert said of Gauff. “And not always rely on patterns and coaches and people telling her what to do.
“I just think she’s at an age now where she’s got to play with a little more feel, and a little more instinct and a little more belief in herself. And get away from the patterns. She was frustrated at them [her coaching box]. Like she was blaming them, but really tennis is inside you.
“John [McEnroe] and I didn’t have the coaching they have now and I think we figured it out ourselves. We played instinctive tennis and I think that Coco’s got to do more of that.”
Last September, Gauff rallied past Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 to capture her maiden major before a raucous crowd on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
It was Gauff’s 12th straight win and came after she became the youngest woman to win the Cincinnati Open.
At age 19, Gauff became the youngest American to win the US Open since her tennis hero, a 17-year-old Serena Williams, defeated world No. 1 Martina Hingis in the 1999 final. She also joined Serena Williams and Tracy Austin as the third American teenage woman to capture the US Open in the Open Era.
Though Gauff opened this season successfully defending Auckland for her seventh title before semifinal runs at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, she’s been reeling in recent weeks. Evert expects Gauff to see a steady dose of “forehand, forehand, forehand” at next week’s US Open.
The American co flag-bearer at the Paris Olympics alongside LeBron James, Gauff fell to Emma Navarro in a tearful Wimbledon loss, went down to Wimbledon semifinalist Donna Vekic at the…
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