Coco Gauff will have the eyes of the world on her at Wimbledon following her exploits at the French Open earlier this month.
Gauff came from a set behind to beat Aryna Sabalenka and get her hands on a first Roland Garros title.
It was the second time Gauff had won a Grand Slam and extinguished any consensus that she might be a one-hit wonder following her US Open triumph in 2023.
Gauff’s dad was extremely proud of her after the French Open, but given the rigorous demands of the schedule, the 21-year-old has no time to celebrate and heads straight into the grass-court season.
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Andy Roddick shares what Coco Gauff doesn’t get enough credit for
Roddick has hailed Gauff in the aftermath of the French Open success, and clearly, he’s a huge fan of the youngster.
Now, ahead of Wimbledon, he’s been singing her praises again and has admitted on the Tennis Channel Live podcast that there is one thing that Gauff doesn’t get enough credit for.
He said: “Here’s the thing. Like, we always talk about if she plays a round of 16 or a quarter-final and even the final against Sabalenka, and everyone’s talking about how they didn’t play that well, and you know, maybe Coco didn’t play that well and it wasn’t…
“Sorry, making the other person play badly is absolutely a skill. And we always kind of refer to it as a negative.
“She is the best in the world at kind of dragging you into this game with her, where she can rely on different spins and play defence and kind of one more ball mentality, and that’s exactly what she did in the final.
“The wind was great for her, right? Then she didn’t have to go toe-to-toe on the forehand side.
“She could let the ball flutter up on Aryna Sabalenka, but that’s not an accident. That’s taking advantage of the situation. That’s called strategy, and I don’t know that we give her enough credit for it.”
Gauff will have work cut out to win Wimbledon
Given that she’s the world number two and is on the back of a Grand Slam win, it would be extremely foolish to discount Gauff from Wimbledon glory.
However, she’s not the best player in the world on grass, and other players will be fancied more than Gauff to win the third Grand Slam of the year.
Of all the Grand Slams, this is Gauff’s least successful, with three visits to the fourth round as good as it’s got for the talented youngster.
Gauff will have fond memories of the All England Club after knocking out Venus Williams in 2019 when she was just 15-years-old.
This year, she will hope to call on the experience of those kind of displays and make a genuine play to win the SW19 event in 2025.
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