Coco Gauff has had her ups and downs since winning the U.S. Open
From left: Coco Gauff at the clothing line collaboration launch with American Eagle, at U.S. Open practice, and being named a flag bearer for Team USA at the Paris Olympics. Credit: Getty Images
Coco Gauff is everywhere.
Since winning the U.S. Open 11-plus months ago, her first Grand Slam, she has landed on the cover of Vogue and on the front of a Wheaties box.
She has appeared multiple times on the "Today" show and rung up so many endorsements that in 2023 she was the highest-paid female athlete in the world, earning $22.7 million.
More than 29 million viewers tuned in last month to watch as the 20-year-old Gauff joined LeBron James as a flag bearer for the United States at the Paris Olympics, making her the youngest athlete r to carry an American flag at the opening ceremony.
Yes, it seems everyone wants a piece of Gauff. And getting used to that may be a problem, according to tennis great Chris Evert, who like Gauff was 19 years old when she won her first Grand Slam.
“It's interesting, when I watched her at the Olympics, leading the parade, leading the whole Olympics, not only the American team, I saw her trading pins, she was photographed meeting all her idols. I'm like, this girl won't be able to play. She'll be so exhausted,” Evert, an analyst for ESPN, said in a conference call.
“I didn’t expect her to win. She didn’t win. I think emotionally that took so much out of her. She’s still a young girl and wants to have fun, as well . . . I just think it’s a lot. She’s in demand physically. She’s in demand with appearances. Everyone wants a piece of her.”
Gauff is no longer the carefree teenager who burst onto the scene when she started winning matches at age 15 at Wimbledon. Now, with all eyes on her as she returns to defend her U.S. Open title, Gauff is looking to finish what has been a challenging season — one that has featured teary meltdowns at both the French Open and the Olympics — on a high note.
John McEnroe was 20 when he won his first Grand Slam, at the U.S. Open in 1979. Decades have passed since then, but he still can recall how getting that first Grand Slam instantly changed the way he was viewed.
“I think the pressure of expectation hits all the top players,” McEnroe said. “She won the U.S. Open. It gets more difficult in a lot of ways because you have people coming after you. You’re a bigger win. Everyone in your camp expects more. She expects more.”
“I have a lot more aspirations obviously than just winning one [major],” Gauff said recently. “I think the start of one just gives you a taste and gives you the belief that you can do it again.”
Tennis has a reputation of eating its young like few other sports, especially on the women’s side when players rise to stardom as teenagers. Naomi Osaka, a two-time U.S. Open winner, is the most recent example. Osaka, who has taken breaks from tennis for her mental health and to have a baby, has returned this season at age 26 and was given a wild card to play in this year’s Open. t
The intense pressure placed on young female tennis stars was a large topic of discussion after Jennifer Capriati’s flameout after winning the gold medal in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics at age 16. Yet, with Serena and Venus Williams dominating tennis for a generation, less attention seemed to be paid to the topic.
Perhaps because they had one another to lean on or perhaps because they had faced the bigger pressure of being minorities in their sport, the Williams sisters seemed immune to the pressure that big success at a young age brings.
Yet, the Williams’ extreme success doesn’t mean that kind of pressure has gone away. In fact, it may have created more pressure on those following them — Osaka and Gauff — as tennis fans are desperate for the next big star to carry their sport. Should Gauff pull it together and win a consecutive U.S. Open title, she would be the first woman to do so since Serena Williams won three in a row from 2012-14.
“You just don’t know — you don’t consciously know — the expectations that creep into your cells in your body,” Evert said. “Everybody, from Day One has thought about Coco: ‘She’s the next Serena Williams. She’s going to be the next one that dominates.’ That stays with you for a long time.”
Gauff certainly seems to have been feeling the weight of expectations this season.
After making it to the semifinal round in both the Australian Open and French Open, she was eliminated in the fourth round at Wimbledon while visibly upset at her coach, Brad Gilbert. She then bowed out in the third round of the Olympics in a match where she again broke down in tears after disputing a call with an umpire.
As she moved back to hardcourts to get ready for the U.S. Open, Gauff still seems to be searching.
She lost her second match in Toronto and her first in Cincinnati as her ranking has dropped from No. 2 to No. 3. This is quite a contrast to her lead-up to the 2023 U.S. Open when she won 11 of 12 matches and titles in Washington and Cincinnati before arriving in Queens.
“She’s getting constant attention, all the time, and that’s a lot to deal with,” Emma Navarro, who beat Gauff at Wimbledon and was her U.S. teammate at the Olympics, told the Associated Press. “I have a lot of respect for her and how she handles that.”
One thing is for sure. These next two weeks — as she returns to the event that made her a superstar — her ability to handle it all could be tested like it never has before.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
