CELEBRITY
Obscure Tale Unveils How Serena Williams Influenced Coco Gauff’s Career-Changing Childhood Decision
Coco Gauff openly admires Serena Williams! Not only because of her tennis skills and how she has done well as an American tennis player but there is a lot more to the story. Do you know how 19-year-olds get into the sporting world? She recently, after making it to the semi-finals of the Australian Open, revealed the secret behind how she reached bed sheets today.
The fourth-seeded tennis player detailed how going for the 23-time Grand Slam champion inspired the peanut sensation to take up a career-changing childhood move. Let’s take a look at how the younger Gauff found her way into tennis with the help of Williams.
After making it to her first Australian Open semi-finals and achieving a great memory for her tennis career, she opened up about how she got into the sport. During the post-match press conference, she revealed that back when she was just 10, there was a great opportunity that she found in Patrick Mouratoglou’s training center when he was training the 42-year-old tennis legend.
She said, “Patrick Mouratoglou. I mean, he was coaching Serena Williams at the time, and she was my idol. It wasn’t really a decision — like, I got invited over there when I was 10.” Along with that, she also highlighted that at that time, it wasn’t really her decision to use that opportunity; it was her parents who chose to go for that program.
Further, she also highlighted an update about that program and how it gave her a lot of exposure that she might have never anticipated. She added, “Yeah, then we went to Paris for a week and we did this process called Champ’seed. It didn’t feel, it was not an auditioning but I guess in a way, and he just picked the best of the best to kind of help fund our careers essentially.”
Furthermore, she explained that she never went to any other major academy during her practice period other than Patrick Mouratoglou’s, and she was only there for about 6 to 8 weeks out of the year. But even after idealizing Williams and appreciating her for all her contributions, Gauff has her stand clear in life regarding whether she wants to be a Serena Williams heir or Coco Gauff herself.