One year on from her maiden Grand Slam win at the US Open, Coco Gauff is struggling with her game as she prepares for her title defence; watch the US Open from Monday August 26, with exclusive live coverage on Sky Sports Tennis and any match available on Sky Sports+
Wednesday 21 August 2024 07:53, UK
September 9, 2023, Coco Gauff had her crowning moment on Arthur Ashe Stadium as she won the US Open, her first career Grand Slam.
It was the culmination of four years of highs and lows to get to the top, with Gauff's card very much marked as a future star when upsetting five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams as a 15-year-old qualifier on her Slam debut in 2019.
Success didn't follow swiftly as some expected, with Gauff bettering her fourth-round run in that maiden appearance at the All England Club only once - a French Open quarter-final in 2021 - over the next three years, before reaching the final at Roland Garros in 2022.
Once there though, she'd lose convincingly to clay-court queen Iga Swiatek 6-1 6-3 as the world No 1 clinched the second of her four French Open titles won in the last five years. It was a loss that reduced Gauff to tears.
The grind continued into 2023, with Gauff still winless at a WTA 500 event, let alone tasting success at the more marquee Masters 1000 tournaments or a slam.
That was until, come the hard-court season in late summer of last year, something clicked all of a sudden for Gauff as she ticked off those milestones with victory in Washington (WTA 500), Cincinnati (Masters 1000) and in New York all in the space of an extraordinary month.
"I want to say honestly thank you to the people who didn't believe in me," Gauff said after her 2-6 6-3 6-2 victory over Aryna Sabalenka.
"A month ago, I won a 500 title, and people said I would stop at that. Two weeks ago, I won a 1000 title, and people were saying that was the biggest it was going to get. Three weeks later, I'm here with this trophy right now."
She added: "I've tried my best to carry this with grace and I've been doing my best so, honestly, to those who thought you were putting water on my fire, you're really adding gas to it. And now I'm really burning so bright right now."
It was a pointed message from the American starlet, one that gave a nod to her inner drive and determination to prove her doubters wrong. And, having become the first American teenager to triumph at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams in 1999, surely it was just the start of greater success for her.
"She will win double-figure majors if she stays fit," Martina Navratilova told Sky Sports at the time.
"She has no pressure on her now because now she's won this one, so the expectations have been met. I think the confidence that she'll get from this, she's just getting started. Now she's got some time to get better."
Time is still very much on Gauff's side, but it's fair to say 2024 hasn't gone exactly to plan.
Semi-final runs at the Australian Open and French were strong showings, with final-four losses to Sabalenka and Swiatek - the eventual champions of both tournaments - no disgrace at all. But Gauff's game has unravelled since.
"You saw at Wimbledon her forehand really went to pieces and broke down," Annabel Croft told Sky Sports. "You watch her play now and there's an expression on her face that looks worried. She just doesn't look like she's really enjoying her tennis."
Gauff's shock fourth-round defeat to fellow American Emma Navarro at Wimbledon was just the start of things, and it was actually her deepest run in her last four tournaments.
One of the Team USA flagbearers for the Olympics, her dreams were dashed in the third round in Paris by Donna Vekic, while her Cincinnati Open defence ended before it even got going when beaten by Yulia Putintseva in her opening match.
Along the way, Gauff has twice been reduced to tears at Roland Garros after umpire line calls went against her in both her French Open and Olympic defeats to Swiatek and Vekic. It has looked all too much at times for the 20-year-old.
"I feel really sad watching her at the moment," Croft added.
"I'm such a huge fan of her tennis and the way she has gone about her business… she brings people to the sport, and she is struggling.
"This of course is the biggest time, coming up to trying to defend that US Open title. And every time I watch her now, I feel like she looks a little bit burdened by the pressure and expectation.
"I feel like that pressure has been building for quite a few months actually. I'm sure it has been looming over her, coming back to the US Open.
"There's always going to be pressure for anyone trying to defend their first Grand Slam title, but I just feel like she's struggling with it all."
So how does Gauff turn things around? As Croft alludes to, perhaps the added spotlight of the looming US Open, and all the pressure that brings with it for the country's great young hope, might be proving too bright to bear.
But, could it also serve as a catalyst for a comeback? The spark necessary to turn her game around and see her back "burning so bright" as when lifting the trophy last year.
"The minute she comes back through gates at Flushing Meadows, the memories from 12 months ago will return and the confidence with it," Sky Sports' Jonathan Overend said.
"I think she'll have huge support... and that will absolutely lift her and bring the best out of her again.
"It's that untouchable, unquantifiable piece of the jigsaw puzzle. How much does it inspire a player when they return to a place where they've won before? I think it will count for a lot, I really do."
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