Sensational Coco made memories of the young Venus come flooding back
There’s only one player to talk about after the first week of Wimbledon – 15-year-old American Cori Gauff. What a talent!
‘Coco’ reminds me so much of the legend she beat in the first round, Venus Williams, and it brings back a lot of memories for me.
It’s around 25 years since I first had contact with Venus and Serena’s father, Richard.
He was coaching the girls himself on public courts in a poor area of Los Angeles, having learned everything from reading tennis instruction books.
Out of the blue, he phoned me, asking if I would go over and hit with the girls and maybe get involved on the coaching side.
I turned him down. Firstly, there was no way I was going in to a gang-dominated area like Compton, where shootings were commonplace!
Secondly, I didn’t want to get too involved in one-to-one coaching.
However, we stayed on good terms, and the success of Venus and Serena Williams is the greatest sports story of all time.
Now Cori Gauff is following in their footsteps – almost literally it seems.
Whether it is deliberate or not, she even seems to walk like Venus. The similarity is uncanny.
This girl is the real deal. Although I didn’t expect her to beat Venus in the first round.
It wasn’t Gauff’s tennis that impressed me so much, but her focus.
Look at Cori’s eyes when she is playing. There is an intensity there. Absolutely nothing is going to distract her from concentrating on the ball.
Gauff looks mentally as tough as nails, as was demonstrated with her battling win over Polona Hercog, having fought back from two match points down, on Friday.
As for her tennis, I’ve seen nothing like it since watching a 10-year-old Jennifer Capriati hitting winners all over the place.
She went on to win three Grand Slams and an Olympic Gold Medal, but for various reasons never completely fulfilled her potential.
I will be staggered if Cori Gauff does not win multiple Grand Slams, but you never know what is around the corner.
She is 15, and a lot of distractions can come along in the next few years.
On the face of it, there’s nothing to stop ‘Coco’ from being the World No. 1 within a couple of years, and I’m happy to be watching the start of the journey.