As Coco Gauff arrives in Flushing Meadows fresh off a dazzling title run in Cincinnati, there are many who are counting her among the top favorites to win it all.
Count three-time US Open champion Kim Clijsters as one of the observant onlookers who is very high on Gauff at the moment.
“I was very impressed by Coco,” Clijsters said of Gauff on the Love-All podcast this week. “Throughout the week. I felt there was a different energy about her on the court. There was a confidence that I just felt was in her body language – she’s always been an incredible mover and probably the best mover out there.”
Clijsters went on to say that Coco Gauff is a far different player from the one who was out in the rain working on the mechanics of her serve prior to the US Open last year. If the Florida native was a little lost at sea in that moment, after blowing up her coaching team in search of solutions that she felt had been plaguing her for too long, she is now anchored in the progress she has made.
Gauff talked about that important moment in her development after the Cincinnati final.
“I think last year, I was just frustrated with my game and I felt like I was declining,” she said. “It’s not something any player wants to feel. You always want to feel like you’re getting better or, at the worst, just plateauing. So last year I was in a weird predicament. I made sudden decisions that most people probably wouldn’t do before a Slam, but I think it was worth it. I feel like it’s night and day where I am from last year to now.”
Old weaknesses don’t seem to be handcuffing Gauff these days. She’s shored up the forehand, beefed up the serve, and is letting her game flow naturally.
“At times you could kind of argue that the forehand return, could kind of set her off in a little bit of a negative at the start of the rally,” Clijsters, who won the US Open in 2005, 2009 and 2010, said. “But I feel like this tournament, she looked so much more confident.
“She just looked more confident in her first two shots of the rally. And I think that’s what sets her up. And it creates like a freedom into her shots. And just a lot more assertive with the forehand, a lot more aggressive than I’ve ever seen her play.”
Jessica Pegula, Gauff’s victim in the Cincinnati final, is another one who thinks that the two-time major champion is going to be really difficult to defeat in New York.
“It’s just so hard when you play somebody that moves like that,” she said after falling to Gauff in Sunday’s final in Mason, Ohio. “She’s the best mover on tour, I think, by far. Just the way she’s able to defend out of the corners is better than anybody else. That’s really her strength. Right now, a dangerous, confident Coco is going to be hard going into New York.”
The Belgian also added that Gauff has done a great job of articulating her challenges, both mental and physical, in the public eye. The 22-year-old doesn’t shy away from opening up in the public eye, a trait that helps connect her with fans and organize her thoughts into a coherent philosophical approach to tennis and life.
“I feel like she’s very open and very wise when she explains some of her deeper moments on the negative side. I love that she is able to articulate it so well,” Clijsters said. “We’ve seen her from when she was 15 years old and this player who had nothing to lose and played freely to a player that everybody wants to beat and that is one of the potential champions to win every tournament where she gets to. I think you have to learn to deal with those moments, the pressures, the critics. Everything is just louder when you’re at the top of the game and the expectations are higher.”
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