Teenage tennis sensation Coco Gauff continues to be one of the sport’s most charismatic players since storming into the game at age 15 at the 2018 Wimbledon Grand Slam tournament.
Gauff electrified audiences once more after dispatching fellow American Sloane Stephens, 7-5, 6-2, on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, at the French Open in Paris to qualify for the semifinals for the first time in her career.
The win was particularly exhilarating for Gauff. One year ago, she suffered a crushing loss at this same stadium at Roland Garros when she failed at five chances to close out the match against Barbora Krejcikova.
Admitting that her nerves got the best of her in 2021, this time Gauff was calm and methodical in her surgical dissection of Stephens, who won the 2017 U.S. Open champion.
“Obviously I believe in myself,” Gauff said in her post-game interview, according to ESPN. “Even last year I was too focused on trying to fulfill other people’s expectations and I think it’s just, enjoy life. No matter how good or bad my career is, I think I’m a great person. That’s a message for all the young players out there that your results, even in life in general, your results or your job or how much money you make, doesn’t define you as a person. Just know that if you love yourself, who cares what anyone else thinks.”
Just continue to be you! #dreambig https://t.co/z1bZR3XNNw
— Coco Gauff (@CocoGauff) May 31, 2022
Besides, painful losses often serve as the greatest motivators.
“Enzo [Wallart], my hitting partner, told me this match will probably make me a champion in the future,” Gauff told reporters after last year’s defeat. “I really do believe that.”
Gauff now has her first opportunity for another first: to qualify for a Grand Slam championship game for the first time in her young career on Thursday in the semifinals against unseeded 28-year-old Martina Trevisan.
