Coco Gauff Is Now A Favorite To Win Grand Slam Titles

After an incredible 11-1 summer run with two titles, Coco Gauff is now among the favorites to win the US Open. The 19-year-old hopes her fantastic August can carry over into the September.

“August has been a great month for me. Obviously did well in D.C. and then even in Montreal, and obviously Cincinnati,” Gauff said at the US Open during media day. “It’s been a great couple weeks for me. I’m really excited to go into the rest of this month. Hopefully a little bit into September, as well.”

The teen said that the big improvement from a first round loss at Wimbledon to a now a solid US Open favorite has been belief and trust.

“I think just confidence and trusting myself,” Gauff said. “I think I trust the work that I’ve done in practice. I hope that I can continue to translate that into matches. I think just trusting myself. Obviously have the new team around me. Seeing a different perspective can sometimes just change things completely. I think I have a new perspective and I’m enjoying it a lot.”

One of the big moves Gauff made was added coaching great Brad Gilbert to the team for a trial run in Washington. It’s gone well.

“For me with BG, I think I have a lot more confidence in my game,” Gauff said. “People can say you play good or the opposite, but I think hearing it from someone who probably has seen countless of my matches, I don’t know how many he’s maybe commentated on, but for sure watched countless of my matches and worked with some of the best players in the game, I think you just really believe it.

“The way that he says it. Sometimes it’s not always about the message. I don’t think the message has changed for me, it’s more about how the message was relayed to me. I think hearing that from his perspective helps a lot.

“I think being around Brad and learning I think we’ve just learned a lot just having fun. I think the last couple weeks I’ve had fun in the wins and losses, even that match against Jess where it was 5-All in the third, I got broken, I was still, like, enjoying the match and having fun, where other circumstances I would be stressed out. I think he’s really gotten me to have fun in those tough moments and embrace the hardships of tennis.”

Gauff will open the night session Monday against German veteran Laura Siegemund. Gauff could face Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals a week from Tuesday in a tantalizing rematch.

“I think I’m obviously a lot more confident and, I don’t know, I think the mindset is different. Having like that first round loss at Wimbledon shows that it wasn’t really as bad as it could happen, so I’m not going into this tournament worried if I lose early or not. I can’t really control that result,” she said.

“I think now I’m going in with a lot more confidence. I feel like no matter the score line in the match, I can be able to problem solve and troubleshoot my way out.”

“I know I can win matches not playing my best game now. I think I wasn’t playing my best in every single match in D.C. and Cincinnati, it’s impossible. I do feel I’m much more confident in my B or C game.”

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