Coco Gauff wrote her name into the history books after winning the French Open title.
For the second time in her career, she came from a set down against Aryna Sabalenka to win a Grand Slam.
The 21-year-old overcame the blustery conditions in Paris on Saturday afternoon to triumph on the Parisian clay three years after losing in the final to Iga Swiatek.
Gauff won the French Open and in the process, she became the first American woman since Serena Williams to lift the title in 2015, and she is always proud to be mentioned in a statistic alongside the 23-time Grand Slam champion.
Coco Gauff names her GOAT of women’s tennis
Coco Gauff is keen to put herself in the conversation of the greatest tennis players of all time.
There are several women who became icons of the sport with their ability to win on the biggest stages consistently and captivate fans with their exciting and various styles of play.
While Gauff is still very much working towards trying to enter this conversation of the game’s greatest players, she told TNT Sports that she thinks Serena the player she thinks is ‘obviously’ the best of all time.
“Number one for me, the only position that is not interchangeable is for sure Serena Williams,” the WTA’s World number two said.
“I think that she is obviously the greatest and I think that her mindset, her athletic ability, her power, her personality and presence that she led in the sport, I think is very inspiring. So to me that’s why she is my favourite.”
Corey Gauff’s father names the Serena Williams match which inspired Coco Gauff to play tennis
On more than one occasion Gauff has named Serena Williams as her tennis idol. She is following in her footsteps by carving out her own legacy in the sport and she wants to be recognised alongside Williams as one of the all-time greats.
Gauff’s tennis journey began after watching her win the 2010 Australian Open final against Justine Henin, despite battling injury.
According to her father Corey, Gauff was just five years old when she saw Serena triumph 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 at Melbourne Park for the fifth time, and the rest is history.
“I was watching Serena actually win here [AO], when Coco was five years old,” Gauff’s father said in January while in Australia. “Serena won one year and I got excited; she was jumping around and we were excited and then I went out and bought her a tennis racquet.
“I thought that, you know, maybe she would be a good tennis player. I knew that she’d be a pretty good athlete, but just wasn’t sure what sport it would be.
“Then I went out and bought (Coco) a little Prince racquet and a little soft spongy ball and she started hitting against the garage and she just kinda stayed there, hitting them and hitting them.
“My mind started turning, like, maybe it’s a possibility. But we didn’t do much with it at (age) five. We kind of revisited the whole thing when she turned seven.”
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