Coco Gauff’s debut at Wimbledon 2024 was a flash in the pan. A little over an hour-long exercise where the North American quickly dispatched Caroline Dolehide to reach the second round as if she were in a hurry. Exercising like the great candidate that she already is in each tournament, Gauff commented on her emotions on the court, remembered her elimination here in 2023 at the first opportunity and even had a few words for Aryna Sabalenka, the woman who potentially started out as her great rival in the semi-finals.
The Gauff of 2023 would be happy
“I would be very happy, for sure. I was very nervous before I went on court anyway, there are always some tournaments that are more intimidating than others, but sometimes you let those feelings creep in as well. Today I was just trying to have fun, to enjoy it, I don’t know how many more times I will have the opportunity to play on this very special court, hopefully many more. I try to never take anything for granted. I had the image in my head that I already experienced the worst last year, so in the worst case I would only have to experience it twice (laughs). That was the mentality I embraced today.”
Weapons on grass
“Today I had to use the slice“I did pretty well with it. My coach tells me that I use it a lot on grass because you never know what bounce you’re going to get, because of the type of court. In general, I think being aggressive on grass is crucial simply because once you get stuck in the point, it’s very difficult to neutralize your opponent. You always want to be the first person to attack.”
Follow the designed plan
“It’s all about finding the balance of the factors, but you always go on court with a game plan in your head. Most of the time, the game plan I have works, but you always have to make changes and improvise on the fly. Today I had a game plan and it worked, but there are other times you change it. Even today I had to adjust some things, but I won’t say which ones, but it’s true that I changed some things compared to the start of the match, because I felt that they would work better for me. Obviously, looking at the result later, I think I was right. Playing freely is always fun, you feel that it doesn’t matter what you do, because everything will go well. That’s how I felt today.”
He is not worried about the dance of surfaces
“We haven’t talked much about them because right now my focus is only here. Looking too far ahead can be too much for the mind. I know I have a plan to transition from grass to clay, which I don’t think will make a huge difference in terms of movement. Maybe if you look at tennis it would be different, but I’ve always been able to adapt quickly to clay, much more so than grass, so I’m not that worried about it. It will be interesting to see how we then transition from clay to hard courts, that focus is more important than grass to clay. We’ll have a week and a half to prepare for it, that’s more than enough time.”
Improved mentality since his title in New York
“I feel more confident now in Grand Slams, although I don’t think that US Open was my best tournament in terms of tennis, I had a lot of three-set matches, including the final. It gave me confidence, as I felt in the last few Grand Slams, where I won a lot of matches in straight sets during the first week, so little by little I’m getting better at winning those kinds of matches, avoiding them going to a third set. In a third set anything can happen if there are nerves, especially if you’re the higher-ranked player, so now I try to save these matches in a more orderly way. Obviously, there are times when you can’t control it, but a win is always a win.”
Sabalenka drops out
“I wouldn’t have played her until the semi-finals, so I don’t think about it too much. If I do make it to the semi-finals, I’m sure I’ll be facing a very high-level player. It’s a shame she had to withdraw, she’s always a contender in every tournament and on every surface, she’s a great competitor. She’s a great person, I hate to see her not be able to play, especially because it was all so last minute. I think she was healthy in Berlin, so I hope she can come back soon. I don’t think she’ll be at the Olympics, so she’ll have some time to be ready for the hard court swing.”
2024-07-01 20:53:34
#Playing #freely #fun
