American tennis star Coco Gauff says her rapid rise put her under so much pressure that she had to rediscover her love for the sport after becoming depressed.
The 16-year-old has revealed that she was struggling with her mental demons in the lead up to her breakthrough at the 2019 Wimbledon Championships. Where she defeated idol Venus Williams en route to the fourth round at the age of 15. Gauff’s meteoric rise in the sport has seen her achieve a series of milestones. At the Australian Open in January she became the youngest woman to score a win over a top-five player in a grand slam since Jennifer Capriati upset world No.3 Gabriela Sabatini in the quarter-finals of the 1991 US Open.
Despite her success in the sport, it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the teenage prodigy. Writing for Beyond The Racquet, Gauff explains that she struggled with the hype she experienced at such a young age. Back in 2017 she made headlines at the US Open after reaching the final of the junior tournament at the age of 13.
“I was always the youngest to do things, which added hype that I didn’t want. It added this pressure that I needed to do well fast,” Gauff wrote. “Once I let that all go, that’s when I started to have the results I wanted.’
“Right before Wimbledon, going back to around 2017/18, I was struggling to figure out if this was really what I wanted. I always had the results so that wasn’t the issue, I just found myself not enjoying what I loved. I realized I needed to start playing for myself and not other people. For about a year I was really depressed. That was the toughest year for me so far.”
At her lowest the American contemplated taking a year away from the sport before later deciding not to do so. Paving way for her breakthrough on the WTA Tour where she is currently ranked 52nd in the world. In February she broke into the world’s top 50 to become the first 15-year-old to do so since Sesil Karatancheva back in 2005.
“When you are in that dark mindset you don’t look on the bright side of things too often, which is the hardest part. I don’t think it had much to do with tennis, maybe just about juggling it all,” she explained. “I knew that I wanted to play tennis but didn’t know how I wanted to go about it. It went so far that I was thinking about possibly taking a year off to just focus on life.”
Gauff is now embracing her status as a role model for other aspiring players. Something she has become used to due to a lot of ‘soul searching.’ With her dark period over, Gauff is still burdened with high expectations being placed on her shoulders with many labelling her as a potential successor to the Williams sisters. A term she doesn’t like.
“I don’t like being compared to Serena or Venus. First, I am not at their level yet. I always feel like it’s not fair to the Williams sisters to be compared to someone who is just coming up. It just doesn’t feel right yet, I still look at them as my idols. With all their accolades I shouldn’t be put in the same group yet.” She concluded.
Gauff is just the third player over the past 30 years to have earned eight grand slam wins before turning 16 on the WTA Tour.
