Former ATP player Greg Rusedski thinks Coco Gauff has a real shot at winning the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, as there is a lack of dominant grass players right now.
Parity has been the staple of women’s tennis for many years, and it created a group of players who could win any event. At the moment, Iga Swiatek is the most dominant player on the WTA Tour, but she can’t play well on the low-bouncing green surface.
The Polish player doesn’t play that well on that surface, despite often entering Wimbledon with an active winning streak from the clay-court part of the season, and that creates an opening. Marketa Vondrousova’s Wimbledon win last year certainly proves that.
According to former player Rusedski, who spoke with the Tennis Channel ahead of the grass-court major, Gauff is more than capable of filling the void. She’s had some good showings on grass so far this year and he could see her win the trophy at SW19.
“Well I think, if you look at her (Swiatek), she’s won four French Opens, one US Open. For Coco, let’s be honest, grass against Iga, she’s licking her lips. She’s thinking, ‘That’s my time to start squaring up this rivalry’. She came to the forefront when she beat Venus Williams and announced herself to the world and the British public at Wimbledon [in 2019].”
“And I think Brad Gilbert has done a great job with her, and I think they’re probably saying, ‘Okay, semis [at the French Open] is solid, we didn’t play our best in the semis. But now we got Wimbledon coming on, this is our one after winning the US Open last year’.”
Out of all the surfaces, the grass seems like the surface where Gauff could do some damage against Swiatek, despite being unable to challenge her previously, except for one match in Cincinnati. The Polish player has so far proven to be very beatable on the surface.
“I’m hoping that Coco can bring her A-game to Wimbledon this year and has got a real shot to win. Let’s not forget [Aryna] Sabalenka got ill this year at the French.”
