Coco Gauff suffered arguably the most embarrassing loss of her career at Wimbledon 2023 since becoming an established superstar on the WTA Tour. However, the first-round loss helped Gauff rekindle her love for the sport and win the US Open 2023 merely seven weeks later. In a conversation with Prakash Amritraj of Tennis Channel, the American revealed why she committed to “play for herself” in a TIME Magazine interview.
Coco Gauff had the perfect start to the Madrid Open 2024. The 20-year-old took merely 52 minutes to clinch a dominant 6-0, 6-0 win over Netherlands’ Arantxa Rus. Following the double-bagel victory, Gauff had an interesting chat with Amritraj where the two spoke at length. The Florida native being on the cover of TIME Magazine was one of the topics of discussion.
Amritraj asked the youngster for the reason behind her interview being titled “Why the tennis star is playing for herself now?”. Responding to the pundit, Gauff explained how the first-round loss resulted in her finding for answers. Coco then figured that she had stopped playing the sport for herself.
“After I lost at Wimbledon I felt a lot of expectations from the people and I feel like it took me a while to really dig deep within myself and realize why am I not enjoying it so much, why is it harder for me to perform because I’m playing for other people and I realized that and it took a lot of self-searching… I realized I am not playing for myself,” Gauff reflected.
After a lot of introspection, Gauff found her love for the game which allowed her to flourish on the court.
“That was the switch after Wimbledon last year is that I realized that I just need to play for myself and figure out why I started this sport… My results shot on from there. I think that’s the mindset that I try to remember,” Gauff added.
Staying true to herself, there was a marked change in her game after that. As a result, roughly seven weeks later, the then-teenager would go on to win the US Open 2023.
Coco Gauff Won the US Open 2023 and Reached the Semifinals of the Australian Open 2024
After the embarrassing loss at Wimbledon 2023, Coco Gauff transformed into one of the most lethal players on the ATP Tour. Her performances at Grand Slams, in particular, improved tremendously.
The 19-year-old defeated several big names in the sport’s history – Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Ostapenko, Karolina Muchova, and Aryna Sabalenka – to win the US Open 2023 and lift her maiden major title.
Gauff picked up the 2024 season right where she left the previous one. After a title win at the ASB Classic, Gauff made it to the semifinals, falling short against the eventual champion Sabalenka.
Hoping to capitalize on her form in the majors, Gauff will aim to have a successful run in the French Open 2024 as well and for that, she needs to perform well at the Madrid Open.
