By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, March 3, 2022
March is both birthday month and coming of age anniversary for Coco Gauff.
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The Delray Beach-born baseliner celebrates her 18th birthday on March 13th—three years after she scored her first WTA Tour-level win as a 15-year-old at the Miami Open.
In a clash of talented young American wild cards, Gauff rallied from 2-4 down in the decisive set to edge sometime doubles partner Caty McNally, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, in a 2019 Miami Open opener before a packed Court 5 crowd that included U.S. Fed Cup captain Kathy Rinaldi, Patrick Mouratoglou, Serena Williams’ coach, Roger Federer's agent, Tony Godsick, and veteran coach Sven Groeneveld, who previously coached Maria Sharapova.
Three years later, Gauff will play the traditional spring Sunshine Doubles—Indian Wells and Miami— for the first time as she continues her climb up the rankings.
The 16th-ranked Gauff has endured some of the usual growing pains and continues to make progress with a semifinal run in the Adelaide 250 in January and a trip to the Doha 1000 quarterfinals last week.
Tennis Channel analyst and former world No. 1 Lindsay Davenport tabs Gauff as the next American woman most likely to crack the Top 10.
"Oh, my goodness. It's so easy on the women's; I always just say Gauff because I know it's coming," Davenport told the media in a conference call to promote Tennis Channel's exclusive BNP Paribas Open coverage starting on Wednesday. March 9th. "She's just so good."
Serena Williams, who defeated Kim Clijsters 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 in the 2001 Indian Wells final to capture her second Palm Springs title, remains the last American woman to raise the BNP Paribas Open title trophy.
Since 2012, American women have combined to claim four of the last nine Miami Open titles with Serena winning three in a row from 2013 to 2015 and Sloane Stephens collecting the 2018 Miami championship.
Davenport's belief in Gauff echoes fellow former No. 1 and Tennis Channel colleague Martina Navratilova, who told Tennis Now last season she sees Gauff's potential as prodigious if she can sharpen some technical issues on her serve and forehand and impose her all-court skills.
"Technically, she has to work on that forehand and get it a little more pace on it. The ball is rolling a little too much," Navratilova told Tennis Now. "But she's a fantastic athlete. She moves great, she has a nose for the ball. She moves forward really well just as well as she does side to side.
"Transition game, she can improve a little bit. But at net she likes to be there. So I'm looking forward to seeing her. I know she's going to be serving-and-volleying here somewhere, she's got the grit for it. Her game, there's no limit, literally, so I'm looking forward to seeing her evolve and improve."
Olympic gold-medal champion Davenport cites two 21-year-old American men capable of cracking the Top 10 in the future: 40th-ranked Sebastian Korda and world No. 46 Jenson Brooksby, who took a set from world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the US Open round of 16 last September, reached the Dallas final last month and played Olympic gold-medal champion Alexander Zverev to an epic three-setter in Acapulco last week that made history as the latest professional match ending time.
"On the men's side, Korda [can be Top 10]," Davenport said. "I think that's coming."
Davenport suggests if the 6'4" Brooksby can strengthen his serve, he has the toughness, tenacity, court sense and baseline arsenal, particularly his two-handed backhand, to continue his ranking rise.
"Obviously the big serve is what everyone is talking about. That's the big area to try to improve on," Davenport said of Brooksby... "Imagine if he got that going now. I believe that he's 6'3" or 6'3", developing free points off that. He moves like a cat out there.
"I actually watched him play that match against Zverev which he lost in Mexico, just that brutal long match. But he is such a fighter, and for so long we were saying, oh, maybe the Americans aren't tough enough or maybe they're not grinding enough, and he's the opposite. He'll stay out there and do whatever it takes to win."
During Brooksby's 2021 US Open breakout run, Tennis Channel analyst Andy Roddick offered to help improve his serve. It's uncertain if Brooksby has followed up on Roddick's offer, but if he can add more sting to the serve, Davenport sees Brooksby as a talented young player with immense upside.
"I think the upside is quite big with him," Davenport said of Brooksby. "I mean, this group that's coming through with Korda and Nakashima and Brooksby is a phenomenal, phenomenal group.
"They'll keep pushing each other. They all have different strengths. But I think the fight of Brooksby is really going to set him apart from a lot of players, and he still has some shots to improve. That's really what you like to see also."
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