Coco Gauff is not an ace in break-ins and hold-ups. The 19-year-old American has rightfully invited herself to the elite table of world tennis since her emergence, at the age of 15, on the lawn of Wimbledon, where entry codes are no joke. But, since the start of the summer tour across the Atlantic, the 6th in the world has been breaking the barriers one after the other.

After lifting the trophy in Washington on August 6, his first in the WTA 500, the child prodigy of American tennis triumphed in the category above. In Cincinnati, on August 20, she offered her first Masters 1000 by beating the Czech Karolina Muchova in the final, whom she meets again on Friday September 8 in the semi-finals of the US Open, the last meeting of the Grand Slam of the season.

In Ohio, for the first time in eight confrontations, Gauff finally found a solution against world number 1 Iga Swiatek. She got rid of the Pole in the semi-finals (7-6, 3-6, 6-4), from whom she had never taken a single set before. A victory which partly sounded like a click. “It gives me confidence and shows that I can compete at this level. I may not beat her every time from now on, but this victory proved to me that I can do it, she commented without being overconfident. I don’t think I’m close to the highest potential of my game, because there are still plenty of things to improve. » Starting with her forehand, where the problem lies most with this stubborn young woman, who has said since she was 6 that she wants to become the best tennis player of all time.

A questioning

After her final at Roland Garros in 2022, the one whose career is managed by Team 8 – the management agency of Roger Federer and his historic agent Tony Godsick – failed to reach the final stage leading to the Holy Grail , with a succession of disappointments: quarter-final at the 2022 US Open, round of 16 in Melbourne at the end of January, again quarter-final on Parisian clay in the spring, before an entry defeat at Wimbledon in July.

Stung in her pride, Gauff questioned herself by making changes in her team. The Spaniard Pere Riba arrived at the end of June alongside him. At the end of July, she then called on a familiar face on the circuit in the person of Brad Gilbert, former coach of Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, the last (male) representative of the star-spangled banner to have triumphed in a Major. It was at the US Open in 2003.

Twenty years ago, Roddick had also hired him during the summer. Their collaboration was immediately fruitful with a Montreal-Cincinnati-US Open triple, then the world number 1 position at the end of the season. “I’ve had offers for the past few years, but I was looking for the right player or the right player. I was seriously considering the idea of ??coaching again, but above all I was considering [doing it with] a young American,” explained September 1 on the US website. Open the 62-year-old retired coach, known for his bestseller Winning Ugly (“win ugly”, in French), published in 1994.

Comparisons to Serena Williams

Since Brad Gilbert has been at her bedside, Gauff seems to have turned a corner, she who until then had only won WTA 250 tournaments (Linz, Parma, Auckland). “It’s not so much the content of the speech I’m given that’s changed, it’s more the way it’s delivered to me. And hearing it from him helps me a lot,” says the 6th in the world, who has won 14 of his last 15 matches (current series). Tuesday September 5, in barely an hour, pushed by the approximately 20,000 American supporters of the dizzying Arthur-Ashe court, the American crushed the Latvian Jelena Ostapenko (Swiatek’s knockout in the round of 16) in two sets 6-0, 6- 2, with a first round completed in twenty minutes.

Gauff thus offered herself her first semi-final in New York (her second in a Grand Slam), following in the footsteps of Serena Williams, the last American teenager to be invited to the final four. Since the start of her career, the youngest has not been able to avoid comparison with her glorious elder, retired for twelve months. “We are both black American tennis players, who grew up in the same area, who were coached by our fathers… I don’t mind people associating us. Either way, becoming the next Serena is impossible. No one will ever be Serena, even winning 23 Grand Slams. I’m just going to be me,” Gauff insisted on August 25 in an interview with L’Equipe magazine.

It’s a safe bet that the comparison would be on everyone’s lips again if she were to triumph in the US Open final on Saturday.