‘Stubborn’ Coco Gauff happy to hush her haters – ‘They said I’m only hype’

Shahida Jacobs 12 Sep 2023 8:28 AM

Coco Gauff - winner of the 2023 US Open - talks to the media

Coco Gauff admits it is “very satisfying” to shush her haters and prove people wrong with her maiden Grand Slam title win at the US Open in New York.

Four years after she first made the tennis world sit up and take note of her talent, Gauff reached the promised land as she came from a set down to defeat Aryna Sabalenka at the season-ending major.

The 19-year-old took aim at her haters, especially those on social media, both during the trophy presentation ceremony and her post-match press conference over the vitriol they dished out.

“To those who thought they were putting water on my fire, you were really adding gas to it. And now I’m really burning so bright right now,” she said during her winner’s speech.

She later added: “I’m very aware of tennis Twitter. I know y’all’s usernames, so I know who’s talking trash and I can’t wait to look on Twitter right now.”

Gauff’s Flushing Meadows success came on the back of a brilliant North American hard-court campaign as she won the Citi DC Open and the Cincinnati Open.

Not bad for someone who was written off by the “haters” after she lost in the first round at Wimbledon.

When asked by WTA Insider when she turned the social media negativity into a positive, she replied: “I think after DC when I won. Because before, I would just mute all the words and not go on my account, delete the account, and all these types of things.

“I realised that my personality is not like that. My parents, they know I’m stubborn and I like to prove people wrong. So the more I read it, the more it made me want to prove them wrong.

“In DC, I saw a tweet, ‘She’s only 250 Coco.’ I won that WTA 500 tournament in D.C. Then people were like, that’s going to be it, it was a flop win.

“Then I won the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati and people were saying I only won that because certain players weren’t rested and weren’t physically well and that would never translate into a Slam. Before my match [on Saturday], people were like she’s going to crush her. She’s going to take her to school and diminish the hype. They said I’m only hype.

“There is something very satisfying about shushing your haters. I’m really curious to go on and see what else they’re going to say now.”