Cori Gauff had an outstanding start of her slam career (main draws) last year in Wimbledon when she was opposed to her childhood idol Venus Williams as early as in the 1st round. The young American reached the main draw at the Championships for the first time after winning in style her first 3 rounds of the qualifications. However, playing the great Venus Williams on the main stage represented a very important moment for Coco.
During an interesting special with ESPN broadcaster Chris Fowler, Coco explained how she managed to beat Venus.
I didn’t anything to lose
Coco admitted that not having nothing to lose was very important for her. At the end of the day she was just 15 and she was facing a tennis legend that was already 39, so whatever was coming would have been a bonus.
“I was just going to take the opportunity. I didn’t have anything to lose, and I kind of played like that. I think that was the perfect moment to play her, for my first main draw, debut,” she said.
I didn’t want to make eye contact
Coco added that she tried hard not to think that on the other side of the net there was a tennis legend.
“I didn’t want to make eye contact with her [during the coin toss], so I was looking at the umpire the whole time and shaking off my nerves, but also, I got to see that I was playing one of the greatest players of all-time across the net. You can see me just trying to get all the nerves out before we started hitting,” she added.
I used variations
The Coco revealed that she thought (and right) that it was better to play smart against Venus using variations.
“I knew that if I needed to go power-to-power with her, I could, but I knew that was not the way I wanted to play. I had to change up the variation, because she’s used to the grass and I’m not, and I was going to try to use it to my advantage as best as I could. I knew that slicing, bringing her in, making her hit balls at uncomfortable heights was going to be the way to make her hit some errors,” she revealed.
Eventually, Coco won the match 6-4 6-4 before reaching the second week.
Cori Gauff in 2020
At the moment ranked no.52, the American played her last match on the 26th of January when she lost to Sofia Kenin 6-75 6-3 6-0 in the 4th round of the Australian Open.
Venus Williams in 2020
Now ranked no.67, the American played her last match on the 2nd of March when she lost to Karolina Anna Schmiedlova 4-6 6-3 6-2 in the 1st round in Monterrey.
Cori Gauff and Venus Williams played each other twice. The head to head is 2-0 for Gauff. The last time that they locked horns, Cori Gauff won 7-65 6-3 in the 1st round in Melbourne (Australian Open) on the 20th of January 2020.
In the following video you can watch the key moments of their match.
