Coach Patrick Mouratoglou recounts his conversation with a 10-year-old Coco Gauff

09/17/2023 09:30 PM

Coach Patrick Mouratoglou reveals Coco Gauff visited his academy when she was 10 and left a very strong impression on him during their "one-on-one interview." At 19, Gauff is a Grand Slam champion and enjoying a career-high ranking of No 3 in the world. When Gauff was just 15, she defeated Venus Williams en route to reaching the Wimbledon round-of-16 as a teenage qualifier. Gauff started making notable results from a very young age and coach Mouratoglou isn't surprised. "She came to my tennis academy to do tests and see if she could get into the program, and she was quite impressive. We do these training programs, physical tests, matches, one-on-one interviews in the office, where I want to feel their drive and the belief they have in themselves. Her interview probably impressed me the most. At times, she was looking at me in the eyes. I was asking tough questions. A lot of players say they wanna be No 1 but do they really believe it? Do they really understand what it takes? Because to reach the top of the game is really difficult, there are lots of ups and downs and most of them don't believe in themselves. But there, Coco Gauff impressed me the most," Mouratoglou told CNN.

In the US Open final, Gauff didn't start really well as 2023 Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka very routinely won the opening set with a 6-2 score. After easily losing the first set, Gauff also faced two consecutive break points in the first game of the second set. Then, Gauff's impressive comeback started which resulted in a 2-6 6-3 6-2 win over Sabalenka and the American winning her first Grand Slam title. "I think the most impressive has been her mental strength. This final, she didn't start well, she was down a set, and she was far from playing at her level. Even though Aryna played a really good match, but she found resources and that was really impressive."At 19 years old, in a Grand Slam final, being able to play at this level and being able to turn this match around, I think that was really impressive," Mouratoglou said.