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keystone-sda.ch
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Coco Gauff is considered a child prodigy.
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Sven Thomann
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The American has to get to know the dark side of her talent early on.
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At the tender age of 13 she begins to struggle and …
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AFP
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… celebrates its first tournament victory just a few months later.
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Dealing with pressure on expectations is one of the greatest challenges for young athletes. Especially when, like Coco Gauff, they are considered a mega talent. “All my life I was always the youngest, doing things that led to a hype that I didn’t want,” the 16-year-old admits to the online portal “Behind the Racquet”. At the same time, this increased the pressure the American needed to get good results quickly.
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There was a long pause in the room
These were not the problem either when the then 13-year-old started to struggle in 2017/18. «Suddenly I had no more fun with what I loved. I realized that I had to start playing for myself and not for others. I was really depressed for about a year. It has been the hardest year for me so far. »
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All the time she knows that she wants to play tennis. Nevertheless, she is thinking about taking a year off. «I was just lost. I was confused and thought too much about whether it was what I wanted or what others wanted. » Gauff ultimately waived the time-out. But she has learned to look more at herself and to listen to herself. “It took a lot of moments to sit, think and cry.” But that was exactly what was needed to overcome this low point. “I came out of it stronger and know myself better than ever.”
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“I still consider them my idols”
Gauff shows how strengthened on the really big tennis stage in 2019. At Wimbledon, she fights her way through the qualification for the main field of a Grand Slam tournament. There she defeats the big Venus Williams (39) on the starting lap and reaches the round of 16. Around three months later, she celebrated her first tournament victory on the WTA tour in Linz (Ö).
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“When I’m on the pitch now, I’m just very grateful that I’m out there,” she told Behind the Racquet. She doesn’t like the fact that she is compared to Serena and Venus Williams as an American prodigy. “It doesn’t feel right, I still consider her my idols,” says Gauff. “Of course I hope to get where they are, but they are the two women who show me the way, which is why I can never be them.”
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For the time being, their ascent has stopped. After Gauff is also in the round of 16 at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, the child prodigy is currently being slowed down due to the corona crisis. (bir)
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