Coco Gauff admits that she used to take offence and insults personally because she thought it was personal and that she was the target. However, that all changed when she realized she wasn’t the only one on the tour going through similar things.
The top-ranked American player, Gauff, has been quite open about her experience and struggle with abuse on social media in the past few months.
Gauff expressed her thoughts about it and said: “Yeah, it was a thing in the past where I would take the comments to heart. I started on tour at 15, and, you know, went from an overwhelmingly positive response to, you know, now there’s pressure that you have to win and to where every loss was negative comments. Honestly, I didn’t know anything about that as a junior; I didn’t know anything about betters, to be honest, and I didn’t realize how many people bet on the sport and how nasty the comments can get.”
She added: “I was taking them to heart because I didn’t know other players were experiencing it as well. I thought it was just a target thing. Then I realized almost every player or pretty much every pro player deals with it in some way. I took it personally. Then, you know, I’m the type of person who’s going to see it anyway unless you, like, turn off your phone. I like getting into social media, as you said.”
Coco Gauff in 2024
WLWLWWLWWW Now ranked no.3 (career-high), the American played her last match on the 15th of March when she surrendered to world no.9 Maria Sakkari 6-4 6-7(5) 6-2 in the semifinal in Indian Wells (draw).
This year the American owns an overall 16-4 record. Gauff has won 1 title in Auckland.
Coco Gauff |
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