How 16-year-old Coco Gauff became the new face of world tennis

Coco Gauff has a maturity to go with her immense talent that makes it easy to forget she is still only 16.

Since announcing her arrival with victory over Serena Williams at Wimbledon, Coco Gauff has worked hard to show she is far from a one-hit wonder. Picture: AFP

When it comes to Coco Gauff, there is no such thing as hyperbole. After her electrifying run at Wimbledon last year, where she beat five-time champion Venus Williams, she was touted as a ­future world No.1, a prodigy, a history-maker.

In the year since, past and present champions have gone further: Gauff has the potential to become the greatest female player of all time, she will be the role model for the future of their sport.

It is undoubtedly a huge responsibility for the 16-year-old from Florida to bear, a weight of expectation that would crush older, more seasoned players, but Gauff wears it lightly.

In the 12 months since she stunned the crowds on No.1 Court by beating Williams 6-4, 6-4 ­en route to reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon, she has worked hard to demonstrate she is far from a one-hit wonder.

Kayo is your ticket to the best sport streaming Live & On-Demand. New to Kayo? Get your 14-day free trial & start streaming instantly >

“You always have concerns about how someone will handle it,” says commentator and former British No.1 Annabel Croft. “

We’ve seen so many burnouts in tennis where you’ve got a child star who breaks through and then the pressure gets too much for them.

“But something tells me that she’s got her feet planted firmly on the ground.”

Croft calls Gauff an “old soul” and that is a refrain that is often heard among the American’s admirers. “At 14, she was more mature than women on tour who are 25,” said Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou.

“She has an inner strength that is completely unusual.”

Such is Gauff’s sagacity that it has been hard to remember she is still a teenager – the youngest player in Wimbledon’s history to qualify for the main draw last year and the youngest WTA finalist since 2004 when she won her first title at Linz in October.

There are glimmers of adolescence: her desire to buy a hoodie with her Wimbledon prize money (A$370,000) and the heart-melting hug she shared with Naomi Osaka after the 22-year-old, then the world No.1, beat her in the third round of the US Open last year.

“You have to keep reminding yourself how young she is, it’s so hard to believe,” Croft said. Six months after her appearance at Wimbledon, Gauff produced the second-most impressive performance of her fledgling career, beating Osaka, the defending champion, in just 67 minutes at the Australian Open.

“Normally, for somebody of 15 years of age to get to the fourth round of the Australian Open and have beaten the defending champion, that would be extraordinary,” Croft said.

“But it’s almost as if we’ve come to expect it because of what she did at Wimbledon.”

Gauff has struggled with pressure in the past and spoken of the depression and “dark mindset” she suffered as a result of feeling that she had to be perfect.

“Throughout my life, I was ­always the youngest to do things, which added hype that I didn’t want,” she said.

“It added this pressure that I needed to do well fast … I was just lost. It took many moments sitting, thinking and crying.”

This pressure, however, was in 2017-18, when Gauff was still unknown to fans and pundits, before the almost hysterical hype of Wimbledon and before she made the leap from being ranked 686th in the world to 68th in the space of a year.

She says that difficult period helped her to prepare for the stratospheric rise that followed. “In the beginning I thought I had to be perfect, but I’ve done a lot of soul-searching and moved past it. When I let all of that go and didn’t focus too much on numbers, that was when Wimbledon happened and my results really went up.”

Gauff’s parents seem to have played a vital role in protecting her.

Her father Corey, who quit his job to coach her full-time, has been overheard on court imparting such wisdom as “you’re not going to sprint to the finish line, we’re going to walk there”, while her mother Candi, who is in charge of her home schooling, has become a viral hit for her celebrations in the crowd.

“She’s got very good parents and it appears to be a very tight family unit that keeps her very grounded,” Croft said.

“It was something that Nadal always used to talk about – for a player to really flourish, they need great roots and great grounding. She seems to have that.

“When we commentate, you can hear the connection with her dad is really prominent. It seems to be a lovely relationship; you can see from the body language. It’s not an angry relationship at all – sometimes you have players who have their dads as coaches and it’s all bellowing and a bit tense. With them, there is always a bit of banter and laughter and it seems like a warm, loving relationship.”

Gauff says her parents taught her that “pressure is a privilege” and that she remembers this in her most daunting matches. It seems to be the attitude she has applied to her ever-growing social media presence, too, which she has recently devoted to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Her social media pages have been filled with various petitions, links to articles and pledges, and last month she appeared at a peaceful protest in her home town of Delray Beach, where she said: “I think it’s sad that I’m here protesting the same things that (my grandmother) did, 50-plus years ago.”

Martina Navratilova said last week that Gauff could “change the world for the better” and Croft agrees.

“She is going to be a great leader, a great ambassador and role model,” Navratilova said. “I think she will create change, from her very presence.

“There are certain people that come into life who just have a special energy that connects with people, like Muhammad Ali – special individuals that just transcend their sport.

“There is so much pressure on her because of what happened last year and the way she handles it all is extraordinary. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

For Gauff, the expectations could not be higher, but her plan is simple. “I just be myself, I don’t really focus on the cameras. I just be myself and hope that works out.”

The Sunday Times