An important victory against the crisis, to smile again and leave the last dark months behind her (professionally speaking): Coco Gauff won the China Open in Beijing and, in the press conference after beating Karolina Muchova, the American tennis player shared an honest analysis of the role that victories and defeats have in her career.
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"I've played the best tennis in a long time, I'm proud of how I competed because it was not an easy tournament at all. I had an impressive feeling of confidence all week, I felt that I could beat anyone. Muchova is a very dangerous player. I don't like to play against her, it's very difficult for me to find a way to hurt her, but today I had an impressive concentration and performance," she said.
Starting from a question from a journalist about how she manages to play the best in the finals of a tournament (she won 9 titles ion 10 finals played - ed.), Gauff analyzed: "Honestly, when I get to this stage of the tournament, I'm just happy to be in the final. It helped me a lot to go on the court relaxed knowing that I've already won a tournament of this level, but I also think I have enough maturity to know that this match would not change my life. Tomorrow I will wake up and it's a different day. 70% of the world doesn't know anything if I won or lost. Probably even more. In this way I treat my mentality honestly. I think more and more every day that tennis is not a measure of my value as a person. Tennis can't really measure my value as a person. When you realize that, it's easier to handle the pressure and play relaxed."
Coco has qualified for the WTA Finals, saying about it how this allows her to shorten her schedule, considering that she will only play in Wuhan before Riyadh.
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The 20-year-old American opened 2024 with a win in Auckland in the first week of the year, but after that she was unable to achieve any significant results, dropping to 6th place in the WTA ranking.
But the triumph in the Chinese tournament can be a divide: Coco won a WTA 1000 title right after ending her partnership with Brad Gilbert and starting a new journey with coach Matt Daly. A sign of destiny, evidently, for a tennis player who needed a new emotional jolt to return to competing with her best tennis. And she did. Although brief, her new partnership with Daly has already shown something, at least on an emotional level: technical and tactical improvements will come.
In a WTA interview on the eve of Beijing, Gauff explained that she wanted to use the tournament to put into practice the adjustments to her game that she is working on with her new coach Daly.
"I'm very excited. I think it's going to be the same next year. I'm really excited about a new change and hopefully improving other parts of my game. Working with Brad has been great, we've had a great collaboration. I think it was time to reset and add some things to my game that I felt I needed to do to have a better season next year."
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Coco also talked about improving her serve: "There are other parts of my game that I want to work on, but right now I'm focusing on my serve. When I serve well, I play pretty well. For me, that's the foundation of my game. The little bit that we've done is already a drastic improvement compared to three weeks ago. At this point, there's no need to change the whole technique or reset everything, it's just little things that, if I do them compared to a week ago, will help me."
And on the WTA Finals she said: "It would be great to qualify this year and experience the Finals, but I'm also trying not to put too much pressure on myself because it's a new training structure and I'm adding things. With this tournament, in a way, we started the preseason early. So I'm not thinking too much about it. If it happens, great. If it doesn't happen, I'll take a vacation, it's a win-win. But everyone wants to be in the round of 16, so it would be great."
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Gauff concluded by talking about her Asian campaign, where she has shown glimpses of her private life as a tourist, through her social media: "This time I've done more things. Last year I was very tired and didn't do anything. This time I've adapted a lot quicker and I've visited the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, which was amazing. I was able to spend two weeks at home, so I feel refreshed and hopefully I can finish the season on a high note."
