As you might know from my Twitter feed or even the Gossip with Celebitchy podcast, I follow tennis. It’s basically the only sport I pay attention to on a daily basis. I’ve been so pleased to see the evolution of Coco Gauff, from the wunderkind who shocked Venus Williams and the Wimbledon crowd in 2019, when she was just 15 years old, to the more mature, focused and politically active young woman who won last year’s US Open at the age of 19. When she was 15, she was called the future of tennis and a lot of people put a lot of expectations on her young shoulders, but she wasn’t crushed by those expectations. She rose to them and kept excelling, kept fighting, kept achieving. Coco is the April cover star for Vogue. While I’m glad that the photos are probably lit, what was Anna Wintour thinking choosing THIS as the cover shot? Coco deserves better! The Vogue cover interview is good though, with a lot of stuff about her new coach (Brad Gilbert) and Coco’s goals and perfectionism. Some highlights:
Brad Gilbert thinks Coco’s problem is not her forehand, it’s her perfectionism: “Coco definitely shares a big-time trait with Andre [Agassi] in that she’s a perfectionist. Crazy perfectionist. That’s probably the thing from early on I noticed instantly. And I told her, ‘The pursuit of perfection doesn’t exist. It makes you miserable, chasing it. And you’re never satisfied with being good.’ She’s just always gotta be better. Andre was the same. And it’s like, ‘You only gotta be better than the lady on the other side of the net.’ That’s it. This whole being-better-than-you-need-to-be costs you a lot of matches.”
Serena Williams’ advice to a young Gauff: “It was just kind of like: ‘Focus on your growth and your own rate of success, not other people’s.’”
She played Venus (twice) but she never played Serena. “If I had the perfect world I would have gotten to play both. But Serena retired and I played Venus twice. In my perfect world I would have played Venus once and Serena once.” Gauff is glad that, in that moment, she played Venus rather than Serena, though. “Playing Serena at Wimbledon, I don’t know, I feel like it would have messed up my story. I wasn’t ready for Serena at that time.”
She’s trying to neutralize her perfectionism. “I’ve always known I was a perfectionist. It’s a great thing and also a bad thing.” It’s what drives her to work hard, she explained, but it also means that she’s constantly beating herself up and focusing on her mistakes. Even when she wins: “It’s not like I’m saying, ‘Good job, Coco.’ It’s like, ‘Okay, why didn’t you do that sooner?’ By theory you’re always striving for more, because you’re never going to be perfect. The day I’ll play every match and win every point and not make any mistakes, that’s when I’ll reach perfection. Which will never happen. I’m trying to do more of, you know, accepting the good shots. And giving myself as much of a compliment as I do a critique.”
She was hesitant to hire Brad Gilbert: “I know that sounds so wrong. In a way I don’t mind meeting new people on a surface level. But your coach will eventually know everything about you. You spend more time with them than you do your family.” Switching coaches is her least favorite process. “And also, he was an older guy. I didn’t know how I’d get along with someone in their 60s. But he’s actually pretty hip and pretty young in some ways. So it ended up being a good decision, obviously.”
The last minutes of her US Open final: “I didn’t want the moment to get away from me. I didn’t want to be one of those stories: ‘She was so close to winning the Grand Slam and she choked.’ If you look at my face I’m just stoic. There was all this built-up emotion. I’m almost there. I’m almost there. I’m almost there. And then finally I was there. I did it. And I just fell on the floor. That was a feeling I’ll never be able to replicate no matter how many more matches I win. I want to win more so I can get as close to the feeling. I told my mom—I literally said, ‘It was an addictive feeling.’ As soon as I felt that, I wanted to refeel it again. I said, ‘Now I see how people get addicted to drugs.’ That feeling was a drug. For the rest of my life, the rest of my career, I’m going to be chasing that high.”
She has a boyfriend!!! Gauff did not want to disclose his identity, but she did say the following: “He’s a very nice guy. He’s in school now. He’s about to apply for music school. He wants to be an actor and he plays the guitar. He’s not from Delray. He’s actually from Atlanta. And actually, um, I will say this: People on Twitter found him two or three days ago. I won’t respond and confirm if it’s him or not, but they caught me in the comments, so they know.” He is not a tennis player, in other words. “Some people thought it was someone in tennis and that couldn’t be further from the truth.”
Her new goals: “I would say the biggest things on there are to win another Slam, and a medal at the Olympics. I really want to do well or win Roland Garros because I just felt like I was so close last time. Paris is my favorite city, so I do want to try to win there. That would be special. But obviously if it’s not Roland Garros, I’d be very happy to win Wimbledon or the US Open.”
LMAO “obviously if it’s not Roland Garros, I’d be very happy to win Wimbledon or the US Open.” Australian Open WHO?? I’m glad this came out after her semifinal run in Melbourne or else the Aussie fans would have been mad. Also: “And also, he was an older guy. I didn’t know how I’d get along with someone in their 60s.” Brutal!! To be fair, Coco and Brad get a kick out of each other and their personalities totally gel. He’s always trying to be cool and hip and he keeps her mind off of a lot of her more neurotic tendencies. The funniest thing was when Brad tried to get Coco to listen to the Eagles and she was like “WHO?” It’s also interesting that she has a boyfriend and it’s not (as long rumored) Ben Shelton, the hot new American player. I guess they’re just friends! Hm.
Cover & Instagram courtesy of Vogue.
The cover is just terrible. I agree she deserves better but I guess we just have to accept that Vogue doesn’t know how to shoot non-models and black women.
Vogue is very bad at shooting black women. This is sabotage, I think.🧐
Love the friendship of Coco, Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe. I like the thought of Coco and Ben but as long as she’s happy that’s all that matters! It’s good she’s not making her relationship public yet. She just turned 20 and is one of my fave tennis players. Her comments about Brad are hilarious and typical of a very young person. And 60 is old? (how dare she! 😂)
He also coached Andy Roddick and Andy, who has a YouTube channel, said he, BG and Coco had a training session with him giving her some pointers on her serve. He was very complimentary about Coco and I hope his advice really helps her.
I understand what she’s saying about Brad Gilbert but I glad she hired him. I think his kids are probably closer to her age so he’s somewhat up on things.
He’s a very coach for players about to break open who need to learn the mentality for how to win, how stay calm in bigger tournaments, and have a game plan for finals etc.
Good on Coco for dealing with perfectionism.👍 There seems to be a fair amount of young female celebrities who battle with this. And it can be a real time- and talent-killer if it isn’t overcome–and that takes daily, often hard effort. Perfect is an abstraction too many folks are taught to strive for–and it’s not worth it. 60% effort will usually help one accomplish a lot–with way less grief. 😎
Hey, what’s wrong with the Vogue cover? Except for some obvious “it looks like she was photographed somewhere else” photoshopping, Coco looks great.