Experts Analyze If Coco Is Overrated

I asked several former professional players if they think Coco Gauff, if you strip away all the excessive hype and promotion, is overrated and basically on the same level as Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, Sofia Kenin and Danielle Collins?

The query elicited some interesting responses in favor of the 20 year old 2023 US Open reigning champion…

Former top 100 ATP player: Oh, but you cannot compare her now with players approaching their 30s. You can do that whenever she is approaching her 30s. So far you can say she won much more in singles and doubles and she has a better record than any of them in the same age. Except for maybe Kenin. The hype and promo comes with the world we live in. Plenty of tennis influencers making a good living who can hardly play tennis. If you are a steady top five player, you are in contention for a Slam four times per year. She probably played around 20 already. She is good but great? The hype because she is black makes it look much better than she is. I think the hype is 99 percent in the US so it’s hard for me to estimate how much it is.

Another top 400 ATP player and Davis Cup player for Chile said: Kenin is the best for me. Her court understanding, contact point, precision. She’s a Marcelo Rios in female. I think her ranking dropped due to less training and motivation issues.

Former ATP top 100 player and All American at Stanford: Coco is better than the other three but she certainly isn’t close to the great champions who came before. She won a slam, Keys and Collins did not, Kenin and Sloane did. Coco is ascending, the others dropped off pretty fast. Coco has trouble with her forehand and serve. I think she is a lot better now than she was at 15. She’s better but she has holes in her game.

Former top 30 WTA player: She still misses forehands by 30 feet. Graf and Seles never missed forehands by more than a few inches or a foot…

Top tennis journalist since the 1990s: Sloane’s forehand is a lot better than Coco’s. So is Keys’ forehand – when it goes in the court – Coco forehand and the fact the double faults tend to pile up will hold her back against Iga, Sabalenka, Rybakina. But Coco has more desire than Sloane, Keys, etc. She plays singles and doubles, she competes hard, doesn’t give up. Plus she just turned 20 she will win at least five Grand Slams in my opinion. She has flaws in her game, no doubt but she’s a public park player – all of us who learned to play on parks have weaknesses, pretty much even the great Jimbo Connors had a weakness.

Coco Gauff · Head · New Balance · US Open

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