Sure, Coco Gauff is a Grand Slam champion. Sure, she’s been ranked No. 1 in doubles and No. 2 in singles. Sure, she’s already an enormous star who transcends her sport and was a flag bearer alongside LeBron James on the Paris 2024 Olympics … and has a signature shoe … and is featured on Wheaties packing containers and … and … and …
And but, again in New York for Monday’s begin of the U.S. Open, which she received a 12 months in the past for her first main trophy — the primary American teen to take action since Serena Williams in 1999 — Gauff nonetheless sometimes may sound like somebody who offers with impostor syndrome.
Put merely: She doesn’t fairly perceive what all of the fuss is about.
“I simply thought I used to be no person,” Gauff stated. “The entire flag bearer factor remains to be mind-blowing to me. Like, ’Why am I up there?’”
As she wandered across the athlete’s village, Gauff usually was stopped by different Olympians hoping they might pose together with her for a photograph.
“I’m like, ‘Can I get a selfie with you, too?’ I simply wasn’t actually anticipating this,” the Floridian stated. “Possibly I simply don’t get it.”
When she was requested lower than a month in the past for her ideas on the U.S. Open and its significance to her still-nascent profession, Gauff replied: “It hasn’t been on my thoughts.”
Gauff stated she was as a substitute targeted on the 2024 Video games and absorbing that have absolutely.
“She’s actually embraced her star energy, type of,” stated Jessica Pegula, a top-10 singles participant and Gauff’s frequent doubles companion, “however on the identical time, she’s like a child.”
The off-court facets of Gauff’s Olympics debut had been an enormous success: assembly James; gathering pins; the college-style attending to know of us of varied backgrounds; chatting at breakfast with athletes corresponding to 100-meter sprint gold medalist Noah Lyles.
“He’s in all probability essentially the most assured (athlete) I ever met in my life,” Gauff stated, “aside from perhaps Serena.”
The on-court leads to France? Not as gratifying.
Gauff exited within the third spherical of singles after arguing with the chair umpire over a late name, then misplaced her second match in each ladies’s doubles and combined doubles.
“I’ll attempt to take the optimistic out of it,” Gauff stated, “and do higher subsequent time.”
Along with her title defence — a time period she says she doesn’t love — about to start, Gauff goes by way of a tough stretch of outcomes.
She was eradicated within the fourth spherical at Wimbledon whereas visibly upset at her coach, Brad Gilbert. After the struggles on the Olympics, she moved to the laborious courts to organize for New York and that didn’t go effectively: Gauff misplaced her second match in Toronto and her first in Cincinnati. Her rating slid from No. 2 to No. 3.
Hardly the best leadup she loved in 2023 by successful 11 of 12 matches and titles at Washington and Cincinnati earlier than arriving on the U.S. Open for her star-making flip.
“She’s getting fixed consideration, on a regular basis, and that’s loads to take care of,” stated Emma Navarro, who beat Gauff at Wimbledon and was her U.S. teammate on the Olympics. “I’ve numerous respect for her and the way she handles that.”
It is going to be fascinating to see how Gauff does when the lights come on in Arthur Ashe Stadium. Her preliminary opponent is Varvara Gracheva, who misplaced within the first around the previous two years in New York.
“You simply don’t know — you don’t consciously know — the expectations that creep into your cells in your physique,” stated Chris Evert, a six-time U.S. Open champion and now an ESPN analyst. “Everyone, from Day 1, has considered Coco: ‘She’s the subsequent Serena Williams. She’s going to be the subsequent one which dominates.’ That stays with you for a very long time.”
There will probably be different storylines of curiosity, from top-ranked Jannik Sinner’s current doping case to defending champion Novak Djokovic’s bid for a twenty fifth Grand Slam title to Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka vying for a second main championship of 2024 to the U.S. males attempting to finish a 21-year Slam drought.
Gauff might face essentially the most scrutiny of anybody.
“I’ve much more aspirations clearly than simply successful one (main),” she stated. “I feel the beginning of 1 simply offers you a style and provides you the assumption that you are able to do it once more.”