American teen Coco Gauff has stormed into the U.S. Open semifinals playing the best tennis of her life, and arguably the best of any woman in the world today.
And a big part of that is her competitiveness and level-headed mentality, which she has shown during her red-hot play this summer.
Her talent is a given, but the rest is learned — and the 19-year-old Gauff has had good teachers. Pere Riba and newly added Brad Gilbert have excelled as coaches, but Gauff’s parents have kept her grounded and her grandmother — who integrated her Florida school in the 1960s — has inspired her.
“With my grandmother, I’ve learned a lot from her,” Gauff told The Post. “The biggest takeaway is just always to lead with kindness and approach every situation with an open mind and I think what I’ve learned from her is that it’s OK to speak out. It’s OK to speak your truth as long as you do it from a perspective of kindness and appreciation of other people’s emotions.”
Gauff is the favorite to earn her first Grand Slam win this week at Flushing Meadows.
She reached the French Open finals last year, then responded to a first-round Wimbledon exit this summer by hiring Gilbert and going on a 16-1 tear with titles in Washington and Cincinnati.
Being in the spotlight from such a young age can be dizzying, but Gauff hasn’t tripped up.
“My parents, they’re really my support system, helping me remember my clothes and everything,” Gauff said. “My dad is still sending me scouting reports every match. My mom is more so just being mom. My dad just being dad.”
Her dad, Corey, was a Georgia State hoops star and also her coach. Her mom, Candi, was a Florida State heptathlete who is her moral support. Both keep Gauff grounded.
“In sports, it can be difficult sometimes because people forget you’re a person,” Gauff said. “When you lose, they say all types of things about you. It’s important that you really know yourself, because it’s very easy to feed into what you should and shouldn’t do when everyone’s giving their opinions. For the most part, I’ve done well with it … because of my family. They’ve always kept me grounded and always set the importance of my self-worth.
“Sometimes you can lose your sense of self in this environment. They really help me embrace it instead of shy away from it. … The amount of people I’ve met doing this and the amount of people that come up to me saying nice things and saying I helped them makes it all worth it. I’ll always continue to embrace the people, because the conversations I’ve had really make me feel like I’ve done well.”
Well is an understatement. In the semfinals on Thursday, Gauff will face No. 10 Karolina Muchova, whom she beat in the finals at Cincinnati. Gauff is the first American teen to make the semis at Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams, her idol.
Make that her athletic idol. Gauff’s real inspiration is her grandmother, the first Black student at her Delray Beach, Fla., school. What Yvonne Lee Odom went through in 1961 gives Gauff perspective.
“Yeah, she’s probably the sole reason why I use my platform the way that I do and why I feel so comfortable speaking out,” Gauff said. “She was the first Black person to go to, it was then called Seacrest High School. She was chosen to integrate that high school, and she had to deal with a lot of stuff. That happened six months after Ruby Bridges did her integration [in New Orleans in 1960].
“So she had to deal with a lot of things, racial injustice. Her leading the way she is and being so kind to everyone regardless of their background is something I take inspiration from. … She always taught me to approach every situation with kindness and understanding. For her to go through what she did during that time is something that what I do — putting out a tweet or saying a speech — is so easy compared to that. So that’s why I have no problem doing the things that I do. She always reminds me that I’m a person first instead of an athlete.”
