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Analyzing Coco Gauff Coach Options
2 Comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
By Scoop Malinowski
It’s been over a month since Coco Gauff and her former coach Diego Moyana decided to part ways and still the American standout has not found a replacement coach, though the WTA web site says she is being coached by her father.
Gauff, the world no. 6, has reunited with former coach Patrick Mouratoglou temporarily and the two have been spotted together on practice courts with Gauff accepting some advices and suggestions from the former coach of Holger Rune and Serena Williams.
Gauff said this week about her coaching dilemma: “I know what I’m looking for, I definitely put the personal relationship, over the coaching part. My family is pretty involved. Even with Diego, I had a relationship with his family. His daughter is my age. They had a relationship with my family. I really enjoyed that dynamic. I want to make sure it’s someone I get along with, my team gets along with, that can be fun. Some coaches are a brick wall and are worse for some players. I can’t have that. Obviously the tennis, they have to have a plan. It’s something I’m still learning about what I need.”
With Mouratoglou’s services evidently not part of her long term plans, who are some other coaching options that Gauff might want to consider?
How about Boris Becker? The German powerhouse won Wimbledon at age 17 and 18 and knows a thing or two about what it takes for a young player to achieve superhuman results amid enormous expectations.
Perhaps Venus Williams is available to help out Gauff. Venus hasn’t officially retired but she has not played a match all year and without wildcards her playing future looks bleak as her ranking is outside the top 1000. Surely Venus could help refine Gauff’s mental, tactical and technical assets and give her a new energy spark.
Andre Agassi’s forehand earned him over $31m in prize money earnings and his tips and ideas for how to maximize Gauff’s forehand strike would be fascinating to observe.
Another possibility would be Gauff uniting with Jimmy Arias, who once possessed the most explosive forehand in tennis. Such a decision would probably require Gauff to relocate to IMG Academy in Bradenton and four hours away from her family in Delray Beach but sometimes change is good and needed for a stagnated player.
Mary Pierce was another Grand Slam champion with a lethal forehand and work ethic, surely she could have a positive impact on the 19 year old Gauff’s development. Pierce has coached and advised some other players including juniors.
Michael Joyce was an important part of the career of Maria Sharapova and he was a top 100 ATP player himself. Though his short experience with Genie Bouchard didn’t result in much success, Joyce is still an excellent coach with a lot of valuable knowledge to offer.
Dmitry Tursunov has a proven track record of excellent and immediate impacts on several WTA players and is currently not associated with anybody.
Lindsay Davenport achieved good success with Madison Keys and is another logical option who certainly has the successful Grand Slam experience to make Gauff a more complete player.
Andre Agassi · Coco Gauff · Jimmy Arias · Lindsay Davenport · New Balance
catherine · May 26, 2023 at 1:43 am
Coco certainly seems to have some strict conditions for a coach. More like a chum and friend of the family than a professional relationship. That would worry me. Also the close involvement of her father.
So I suspect the coach search might continue for quite a while.
Scoop Malinowski · May 26, 2023 at 6:43 am
Catherine, there’s some monkey business going on with coaching Coco. Before Indian Wells WTA site did a Coco interview and she didn’t mention Moyano as her coach, just her parents. Then after Miami Coco and Moyano supposedly split due to his alleged personal issues. All sounds like BS to me. A pr ending to preserve the image and value of Moyano for being fired is my guess. Coco parents want to be in control though they have no coaching experience or playing experience. A real coach is going to struggle to deal with those parents and work as a “slave” as wta player coaches are sometimes described. I see Coco parents as the main obstacle stunting her progress. They want all the control and credit and believe she can win a singles grand slam under this arrangement, they could be right, let’s see. It’s a major gamble.