Coco Gauff may be only 20 years old, but she’s staying in touch with some of the legends of the game as she revealed at the 2024 Miami Open.
The young American is currently competing at the WTA 1000 tournament in Miami, a tournament, which is the closest for her to be called a home event.
In the third round of the competition, Gauff outplayed Oceane Dodin, making it to the fourth round of the second tournament of the Sunshine Double for the second time in her career.
During her post-match press conference, the 20-year-old was asked about multiple things, one of them being influence of the former legendary American tennis legend, Chris Evert.
Despite obviously knowing about Evert and her influence on the game, Gauff admitted that she didn’t get to watch many of her videos when growing up, as Evert wasn’t part of the generation she watched when growing up.
“I’ll be honest. I didn’t grow up watching a lot of her tapes just because she was a couple generations past me. But I’ve gotten to know her off the court a little bit more. She’s a very, very kind person. She texts me sometimes.”
“I always try to text her, especially with the recent news of her illness and everything. As far as like her impact on tennis, she’s definitely, if you talk about tennis, she’s one of the first names people think of. Just timeless. I always get videos of her on court style looks on my page. I feel like I know her more for that.”
During her talk, Gauff admitted that the two sometime exchange text messages, and even that her team tried to model her backhand after Evert’s.
“I think once I turned pro is when I watched a little bit more of her old tapes. It’s definitely a different game. I wouldn’t say I modeled my backhand after hers. Well, my team tried. She’s definitely obviously very knowledgeable of the game, a very kind person.”
Naturally, the interest of the journalists in the room shifted to the text messages, and more specifically, what the two usually talk about. Gauff revealed a little bit, saying she usually gets advice about her tennis.
“A lot of her messages are just advice on some matches or just, Good job, How are you doing, regular messages.”
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