Coco Gauff backed to be the next tennis superstar, again

James Richardson 23 Aug 2023 8:25 PM

Coco Gauff celebrates

Boris Becker believes that Coco Gauff has the qualities to be a tennis superstar who can win Grand Slams alongside the likes of Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka.

Gauff enjoyed a breakthrough win in Cincinnati and Becker feels she is now a player who can win Majors.

Becker believes that Guaff has done well to shoulder the responsibility of being a tennis prodigy and learning how to handle expectations that can spiral out of proportion.

“It’s always difficult when you’re 15 years old and already being touted as the next superstar of the tennis scene by us experts,” Becker told Eurosport‘s Germany’s Das Gelbe vom Ball podcast.

“That doesn’t make life any easier for a 15-year-old. That means the pressure increases, the expectations rise, and you also lose a bit of patience. Now I finally have to win something big. No, it was the final in Paris, but the big breakthrough didn’t happen.

“But this summer, now on the American hard courts, she won the tournament in Washington and beat the world number one Swiatek for the first time in the semi-finals in Cincinnati to win the final against [Karolina] Muchova.

“In this respect, I call this a breakthrough, it can be compared to [Jannik] Sinner, and now she is also in the tight circle of the absolute top favourites for the US Open, and that is nice for the scene.

“She is a great personality with a lot of charisma. She comes from America, which is the promised land of tennis with the most big tournaments. The women’s scene needs a superstar, and I’ll say Coco Gauff is one.”

Many expect the US Open to come down to a battle between No 1 Iga Swiatek and No 2 Aryna Sabalenka but Becker feels that the women’s game is very competitive and Gauff is among those who could upset the applecart in New York.

“As a tennis fan, I think it’s good that there are more players,” Becker said.

“Apart from Sabalenka and Swiatek, and they have a realistic chance to win the tournament. From the point of view of the two players, yes, you get a bit hectic, you get a bit nervous. Winning makes you contagious, that is, you see it as normality to always make it to the final, and your opponent is already clear. That’s not per se, and I think it started in Wimbledon, when we saw two other players in the final.

“For the tennis scene it’s good, so Swiatek and Sabalenka I see in the final four, definitely at this US Open. But we talked about Coco Gauff and maybe there’s someone else coming up that we all don’t have on our radar.

“But for the top players, defeats are like waking up, maybe training a little bit harder again, and that everyday feeling is gone for a while.”