Coco Gauff is talking more openly about the person of her dreams.
After being the youngest American player to reach the US Open Final since Serena Williams in 1999, when Williams won her maiden Grand Slam title of her illustrious career, the tennis prodigy, who is just 19 years old, talked with ESPN on Thursday night after becoming the youngest American player to do so since then.
After Gauff qualified for the final round on Thursday, she was questioned about “taking the torch” from Williams, who has won the Grand Slam tournament 23 times, as well as the symmetry between their tennis careers. This question came up after Gauff was asked about “taking the torch” from Williams.
“Serena is Serena,” Gauff remarked. “Nothing has changed.” “She’s the real deal. ” I had aspirations of doing one-half of what she achieved. But I’m not going to judge myself based on how she is.”
Gauff said that Williams is ” someone I look up to” and that “being in the same stat line as her means a lot to me.” Williams announced her retirement after the conclusion of the US Open in 2017.
Gauff went on to say, “She’s my role model.” “Not being able to play her is the one and only thing I’ll look back on with sorrow for the rest of my life. There were a lot of competitions in which, if we had won an additional round and hadn’t been in last place, I would have played her. “But I’m still happy to just be a product of her legacy and to be out here for American tennis,” she said.
In the same position that Williams was in back in 1999, Gauff is now trying to win her maiden Grand Slam event.
The Florida native told PEOPLE before to the US Open that “the goal is to win.” She came into the event in New York City with momentum, having previously won three WTA tournament crowns this year and having defeated the World No. 1 player Iga Swiatek a month earlier.
Gauff said that, as of late, she has been concentrating on learning how to better control her anxiety before matches, and that she also started working with a new coach this summer. She is doing all of this in the hopes of breaking through to the next level and winning her first Grand Slam tournament.
“It would mean a lot to me,” Gauff said in an interview with PEOPLE. “The objective for me is to come out on top. This should be the end objective. There will be a few smaller ones along the road, but the one that stands out to me as the most important is making sure that I maintain control of the matches that take place on my side of the court. I believe that this is what will help me achieve my ultimate objective.
Gauff advanced to Saturday’s championship match after claiming a straight-sets victory against Karolina Muchova on Thursday. In the championship match, Gauff will face Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who is the No. 2 seed in the competition. After losing to Swiatek in the last round of the French Open last year, Gauff will be competing in his second ever final in a Grand Slam tournament.
“I play good tennis when I’m the most relaxed, and I think that when I played the French Open final [in 2022], I was too focused on the expectations, that I had to win,” Gauff said in an interview with ESPN on Thursday. “I play my best tennis when I’m the most relaxed.” “Now that I think about it, the main reason I’m here is because I want to and I have faith in myself. I don’t believe that I had faith in myself back then.”
