© Getty Photos Sport – Sarah Stier
Cori Gauff admits she is feeling additional strain to do properly at this 12 months’s US Open but in addition highlighted she is “not attempting to satisfy Serena Williams’ footsteps.” Gauff, 19, gained two titles main as much as the US Open and that put the American among the many prime favorites for the title at Flushing Meadows.
“Yeah, positively… I do suppose there is a slight strain and all people’s me. It does put a bit bit much less strain in a method as a result of she is the best participant of all time,” Gauff instructed PEOPLE.
Gauff ‘not attempting to satisfy Williams footsteps’
American girls’s tennis hasn’t had a US Open champion since Sloane Stephens’ victory in 2017.
Additionally, there hasn’t been an American girl within the US Open last since Williams misplaced to Bianca Andreescu in 2019. Gauff is in nice kind and locals are hoping that can change this 12 months. In the identical interview, Gauff additionally highlighted that she’s “not attempting to satisfy these footsteps in anyway.” Additionally, Gauff added: “However clearly I do wish to be the most effective model of myself and be the most effective that I will be.”
Earlier than the beginning of the US Open, tennis legend Martina Navratilova mentioned this can be the right second for Gauff to take the torch from her idol Williams.
“I feel she’s able to [receive] the torch but in addition I feel she realizes that there’s some massive sneakers to fill… The passing of the torch can be symbolically clearly going to Coco from Serena. She’s gonna be together with [top two seeds Aryna] Sabalenka and Swiatek.
For me, she’s the quantity three favourite to win the event. And along with her confidence, possibly even barely higher than that, with the gang behind her, I feel it’s gonna be loopy,” Navratilova mentioned of Gauff’s US Open probabilities earlier than the beginning of the event.
