By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday November 10, 2024
The American loves proving her critics wrong, and she's making a habit out of it.
Photo Source: Clive Brunskill/Getty
Coco Gauff has a penchant for making haters eat their words.
Remember the 2023 US Open, when Gauff famously thanked the people who didn’t believe in her? Though she hasn’t been as vocal about it of late, the recently crowned WTA Finals champion told WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen that sticking it to the doubters continues to be part of her game plan.
Speaking with Nguyen after winning her maiden WTA Finals title on Saturday, Gauff admitted that the negative sentiment about her game this summer helped light a fire under her again this year.
“Yeah, honestly, it got pretty loud,” she said of the criticism she received this summer when things weren’t going her way. “I remember vividly after I lost in Cincinnati and they had the TV [Tennis Channel] on in the locker room. Not that Tennis Channel was being negative, I couldn't hear what they were saying.
“But the headline was like, Gauff slump… or something like that. And I looked at that and I was just like, ‘Dang, I have to turn it around.'
"Then I lost pretty in a tough match against Emma Navarro at the US Open.”
Gauff, who finishes her season with a 52-16 record and titles at Auckland, Beijing and the WTA Finals, says that she can’t help notice when she logs onto social media.
“A lot of people were critiquing my season and the “flop era’ – I know all the Twitter terms. I'm not even on Twitter,” she said. “I don't have the app downloaded on my phone. Literally like as soon as I open my app, that's all I see, which is why I'm never really on there, but sometimes I like to tweet some important things and stuff so I'll scroll for like 10 minutes and that happens.”
This fall, Gauff has been making lemonade from lemons and pushing against the narrative of media disappointment in her results. She won 13 of her final 15 matches and on Saturday became the youngest player to win a WTA Finals title in 20 years.
(We haven't mentioned that she's still only 20 yet, but there you go).
“I think for me it was just motivation,” Gauff said. “I’m the author of my own story and I’m not going to let anybody write me off.”
Gauff gave some insight into her method of dealing with the critics, mentioning that her dad likes to get her hyped on the haters at times. She also said that when she has time, she talks about the issue with a psychologist.
“I think it’s just a lot of self-reflection,” she said. “I do [talk to my therapist], I try to go like once every one or two weeks schedule permitting. My dad is pretty petty like me so I’m sure the first thing he’s gonna say when I call him is something that people were saying about me.”
A New Beginning?
After parting ways with Brad Gilbert this summer, Gauff has been working with coach Matt Daly and focusing on evolving her game. She says the fact that she had so many holes in her game that she wanted to shore up has caused her to relax about results.
“I was treating Beijing and Wuhan as an early start to pre-season, and I think having that mindset let the pressure go off,” Gauff said to Nguyen. “But obviously it’s tough because I’m working on new things and trying not to go back to old habits.”
Gauff feels she has made strides, and her performance down the stretch in 2024 is proof of that.
“When I lost in Wuhan I didn’t take it hard at all, because I felt like off the ground and returning-wise I was there and I was playing great tennis,” she said. “It was a key part of my game that I’m wanting to get better. I think I have solved the consistency part of it, now I’m just trying to make it more of a weapon.
“I think for me I still have a lot to improve, but the fact that I’m still winning and working on all of these things kind of at once makes me proud of myself.”
Though she’s finished the season on a high note, she’s not about to say that her developmental phase is over. That’s why Gauff’s future looks so bright. She may not be a top-two player at the moment, but there is a blueprint to get there in place.
“I really don’t feel developed,” she admitted. “When I watch myself I just know there’s so much I can work on, obviously with the forehand and returns, I’ve worked on them so much. It’s just things I know I can work on and improve…
“I know that the results are great but I think in the long run I just want to make sure that when my career is over that I did everything that I could to be the best player possible. I don’t want to stay stagnant, which is something I felt like I did a little bit after the 2023 US Open. I feel like I didn’t really improve on much, I think I just believed more, so the winning was happening, but I didn’t think that improvement was happening.”