Coco Gauff is one of the poster girls for American tennis, and when bursting onto the scene, she drew comparisons with Serena Williams.
At 15, Gauff stunned the tennis world by beating Venus Williams at Wimbledon.
It was the first chapter of a story that is still being written, and six years later, the American performer has been rewarded for her hard work with two Grand Slam titles.
Gauff’s game has been compared to that of Serena’s previously, and when she managed to win her maiden Grand Slam aged 21.
Venus is also a huge fan of Gauff, and perhaps the defeat to her at Wimbledon in 2019 was the moment she realised that there was a new wave of youngsters coming through to knock her off her perch.
Being compared to such legendary figures is never easy, however, and one comparison with Serena really got Gauff’s back up.
Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty ImagesThe comparison to Serena Williams that Coco Gauff didn’t like
To be compared to such a stalwart of tennis and an iconic figure is tough going for any player.
When Gauff won the US Open by beating Aryna Sabalenka in 2023, clearly she felt a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
The youngster had already lost to Iga Swiatek in the 2022 French Open final and people were starting to speculate over whether she’d win her first one at a younger age than Serena won her first.
It was a comparison unappreciated by Gauff, who felt it pressured her too much.
She said in her post-match interview: “It’s been difficult. I mean, it’s been a long journey to this point. I wasn’t a fully developed player, and I still think I have a lot of development to go. I think people were putting a lot of pressure on me to win. I felt that at 15, I had to win a slam at 15. I think that was, you know, not the mistake, because everything led to this moment, so there were no mistakes.
“But that was, like, a little bit of the pressure that I was feeling. Now I just realise that I just need to go out there and try my best. I mean, it was to the point where I remember I lost when I was 17, and there was a stat, they were like, Oh, she’s not going to win a slam before Serena’s age. It was stuff like that that I felt like I had a time limit on when I should win one, and if I won one after a certain age, it wouldn’t be an achievement.
“Yeah, it’s just crazy the amount of things that I have heard or seen about myself, but I’m really happy with how I’ve been able to manage it all.”
Serena comparisons unhelpful to Gauff
Williams was superhuman, and it feels very unlikely that any woman on the tour right now will get close to her haul of 23 major titles.
With that in mind, it’s harsh that Gauff had to carry around these comparisons in the early stages of her career and to a certain extent, even now
Gauff is currently out of the spotlight, working on some changes to her game, and as a two-time Grand Slam winner, she deserves the chance to forge her own path to glory.
Gauff is very much the women’s player from the United States who could dominate in the future, but it won’t be at the same level as Williams did and those keen to compare should realise that.