New York (AFP) – Coco Gauff said the presence of Olympic gymnastics legend Simone Biles at courtside helped her through the worst experience of her tennis career as she battled to a tearful US Open victory over Donna Vekic on Thursday. Seven-time Olympic gold medallist Biles was among the crowd at the Arthur Ashe Stadium as third seed Gauff suffered an error-strewn public unravelling that left her sobbing into her towel at one point in a calamitous first set.
But the 21-year-old American clawed her way through that nadir and regrouped to complete a 7-6 (7/5), 6-2 victory to advance to the third round. Gauff later revealed that the sight of Biles, who withdrew from several events at the Tokyo Olympics to prioritise her mental health before making a triumphant comeback at last year’s Paris Games, had inspired her.
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“I mean she’s the greatest, one of the greatest athletes,” Gauff said after her victory. “It’s her and Serena (Williams) for me on my Mount Rushmore of athletes. I think everything that she went through on the mental side of things in the sport, it’s something I follow closely and try to learn from. To see her there tonight kind of gave me a reminder that I needed,” added Gauff, who spoke with Biles after her win.
“I saw her being interviewed and I was just thinking if she can go on a six-inch wide beam and perform with all the things she’s gone through, I can come out here on court and hit a ball. Her presence helped me today. I was lucky to just came from talking to her, so I was able to tell her that in person,” she said.
Gauff’s preparations for the US Open were thrown into disarray just days before the tournament when she shook up her coaching team and brought in biomechanics guru Gavin MacMillan to rebuild her faltering serve. But after an erratic first round win, when she finished with a whopping 59 unforced errors and 10 double faults, Gauff once again found the going tough on Thursday.
Gauff was broken four times in the first set and looked distraught as she struggled to get to grips with her game. But she settled impressively after winning a first set tie-break and did not drop her serve in the second set to clinch victory.
Asked how it felt to appear so emotionally vulnerable before a packed stadium and a global audience of millions, Gauff replied: “It feels human, I think. I think being an athlete, people kind of disregard that side of us, the human side of things. People say so many things, like, you know, you’re No.3 in the world, and you’re doing this or you’re playing like this, and you should be better and things like that.
But at the end of the day, I feel like if I stop and didn’t pick up a racquet tomorrow, I have a career that so many people would dream of,” the French Open champion said. “I think I just show people what it’s like to be a human, and I have bad days, but I think it’s more about how you get up after those bad moments and how you show up after that. I think today I showed that I can get up after feeling the worst I’ve ever felt on the court.”
Vekic meanwhile also endured a traumatic outing, and was seen burying her face into her towel in despair during a match in which she coughed up 10 double-faults and was broken six times. Gauff faces Polish 28th seed Magdalena Frech in the third round on Saturday.
© 2024 AFP
