Coco Gauff is “only just getting started” with her first US Open win at the age of 19, her coach Brad Gilbert has warned. And Andy Murray’s former coach claimed he had a “really good feeling” she would win here only four days after joining her team following her first round defeat at Wimbledon.
Gauff has since won 18 out of her 19 matches and the biggest three titles of her career, including her first Major title after an emotional comeback win over new world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka.
New world No.3 Gauff is the USA’s first teenage Grand Slam winner since Serena Williams here in 1999.
And Gilbert, 62, said: “It was an amazing 42 days and she’s only just getting started. She’s 19, works hard and wants to get better, that’s the only thing that matters.
“Look at (Novak) Djokovic at 36, he only wants to get better, and when you constantly challenge yourself good things happen. So it’s a great start and I’m glad they gave me a chance to be part of it.”
Gilbert, who has combined his role with coaching Gauff with Spaniard Pere Riba with his ESPN commentary role, revealed: ““Four days after I started with her, I called Mary Joe Fernandez and I told her that Coco was going to win the Open and she says: ‘That’s too soon’. I said: ‘I have a really good feeling’.
“We joined up in Washington and I circled in the hotel the number nine, which was the date of this final that we would be here.
“Coco is an amazing kid, incredibly humble, very hard working, and the thing she figured out which was most important was learning how to win when she was average, and she had never done that before.
“She learned how to problem solve and win matches and figure out a way to win when not at your best and sometimes that is how you become a great player.
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info
For me the most important thing was her understanding her strengths and helping her understand her opponents’ weaknesses and strengths.
“And navigate her game better. We moved her back a little bit on the return and I got 100 texts about her forehand – ‘Fix her forehand!’ and that was never part of the equation, didn’t need to be, she had a lot of other strengths, we fixed a lot of things and it is only starting.”
Gilbert, who worked with Murray in 2006-07, won the US Open with the unseeded Andre Agassi in 1994 after starting working with him in March that year. And he began coaching Andy Roddick in June 2003 – and three years later he won the US Open.
“I don’t compare any of these amazing experiences but I’ll say this as she asked me ‘It’s been a long time for you?’ I said you weren’t even born in 2003 which is pretty crazy but I haven’t forgotten how to coach and there is still a big time need for players to get coaching.”
Source: Read Full Article
