Coco Gauff shared her aspirations for the 2024 season and emphasized that she won’t settle for winning just one Grand Slam throughout her career. A remarkable streak at the end of 2023 earned her three titles: her first WTA 500 (Washington), first WTA 1000 (Cincinnati Open), and her maiden Grand Slam (US Open) within just six weeks.
At 19 years old, much is still expected from the world No. 3, who will kick off her season at the ASB Classic on January 1st as the top seed, facing her compatriot Claire Liu (world No. 98) in the opening match. Upon her arrival in Auckland, she reflected on her impressive finish in 2023 and her first Grand Slam: “I felt like I had a clock and I needed to win as a teenager,” said Coco Gauff.
The young American swiftly made a name for herself on the WTA Tour after defeating the 5-times Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in the first round of Wimbledon in 2019 at just 15 years old. Since then, the spotlight has been on Gauff, and she finally secured the coveted Grand Slam at Flushing Meadows: “Just for how I started, with Wimbledon and everything, I felt like I just needed to.”
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Rise and ambitions of Coco Gauff
“Not with anyone’s expectations from my team, but fans and people who watch the game.” She also recalled the US Open final against Aryna Sabalenka, who was guaranteed to be the world No. 1 at the end of the tournament: “That feeling I felt on match point was a high, and I want to continue to chase that high,” said Gauff.
The moment that changed Gauff at the end of the season was Wimbledon, as she mentioned when, as the 7th seed, she couldn’t surpass the first round, falling to the former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin: “After Wimbledon, I reached the lowest point of my career, losing that match,” Gauff said.
“Learning from it helped me push forward and I think sometimes you need those setbacks to push you forward,” she added. “Not to wake me up, because I felt like I always was awake, but realise that maybe you should put less pressure on every single match,” Coco Gauff concluded
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