Serena Williams’ childhood coach Rick Macci believes Coco Gauff will be a top player for many more years as he sees Roger Federer’s mindset in the 19-year-old American.
Gauff, who will be celebrating her 20th birthday in March, has been around for five years now and has accomplished major success during her teenage years. After breaking into the top-10 for the first time in 2022, Gauff continued her rise in 2023, becoming a Grand Slam champion at the US Open and also becoming the top-ranked American female tennis player.
However, Gauff’s early success isn’t really a surprise, considering how much work, commitment, and dedication the 19-year-old puts daily in improving her game and getting better.
“She’s not going anywhere, we talked about this before. She’s a teenager, one of the best backhands on the tour,” Macci said on NBC.
“But I actually like her backbone better than her backhand. I love her motto, ‘No days off’. Coco’s only gonna get better. And what I really love, is she has the mindset of Roger Federer.”
Macci sees a bit of Federer in Gauff, who impressively bounced back in the summer
Just before Gauff’s impressive second part of the 2023 season, the American experienced one of the lowest points of her career.
During the first part of 2023, Gauff was consistently making deep runs in WTA 1000 and Grand Slam tournaments, but would always fall short when the time came for her to play against a top player. After a 6-4 6-0 loss to Aryna Sabalenka in the 2023 Indian Wells quarterfinal, Gauff admitted that just being ranked inside the top-10 and making deep runs without winning titles was not something that would make her happy.
Then, Gauff experienced one of the lowest points of her career after losing to Sofia Kenin in the Wimbledon first round. Gauff, who was visibly very dejected and disappointed over her Wimbledon result, went back to the drawing board.
When Gauff returned to action, Andre Agassi’s ex-coach Brad Gilbert was with her. In the next couple of weeks, Gauff won her first WTA 1000 title in Cincinnati before also winning her maiden Slam at the US Open.
Following Gauff’s astonishing North American hard court, many were applauding the American for how she was able to bounce back after a major Wimbledon disappointment.
