Coco Gauff has been considered the next tennis superstar for some time attracting big-time sponsors as a 15-year-old.
She admits that the pressure of all that can be quite overwhelming.
Gauff got the Grand Slam win everyone tipped her for in 2023 but says that she still feels the weight of expectations.
“Definitely it puts pressure on you. I never label myself that. I always said I just want to be the best that I can be. It definitely adds pressure to it, especially when you have these losses, people say things about you, the rest of your life,” she said in a press conference.
Gauff says that she has tried a few different stress-coping techniques including meditation.
“I try to meditate. I’ll be honest, I’m terrible (smiling). It’s something that I’m trying to incorporate more. It’s not even a weekly routine at this point. It’s like monthly, biweekly. I’m trying to do better.
“I think it just comes from experiences. I know I don’t play my best tennis when I’m not relaxed.”
Gauff says that the hectic WTA Tour schedule actually takes pressure off her just a bit as she knows there will be another chance to win very soon if she suffers a disappointing result.
She says that she has learned to let matches go and not to be obsessed with winning every single match and every single tournament that she enters.
“Also I feel like now playing on tour, like, I didn’t play as many junior tournaments as the average junior player did. Like, when I lost, I knew I had three or four weeks before I would play another tournament, where I feel like with the tour, it feels almost a little bit better knowing you have another chance maybe next week or two weeks later.
“That’s something that I think has also helped that kind of feeling, knowing that you have another shot next week.
“Especially when I was playing in juniors, I would really play the Grade 1’s before the slams, then the slams.
“Every kind of match mattered, which it does in this structure obviously. I just felt like losing, I would dwell on that loss for weeks, whereas the tour forces you to dwell on that loss for a day, then you have to get back to it.”
Gauff is set to face Marta Kostyuk in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open.