Coco Gauff shares unusual traits of ‘quirky’ coach behind her US Open success
Coco Gauff is having fun with the most effective summer season of her profession as she seems to maintain issues rolling on the US Open. Back into the quarter-final for a second 12 months operating, the American has some new faces in her field serving to her alongside, together with Brad Gilbert. Gauff opened up on her new mentor’s “quirky” traits together with waking up at 3:30am.
Gauff has misplaced only one match since including Gilbert to her teaching camp post-Wimbledon. The world No 6 picked up titles in Cincinnati and Washington final month and is trying to go one higher by successful her house Grand Slam event.
While the 19-year-old has all the time had the sport to win large titles, a brand new perspective from Gilbert has seemingly been the ultimate piece of the puzzle over the previous few weeks. While the tennis world is properly acquainted with the 62-year-old – he’s a commentator for ESPN and beforehand coached Andy Murray and Andy Roddick – there are some new quirks Gauff as realized about Gilbert since they began working collectively.
“I was worried about being with the older person, to be honest, before I met Brad,” the five-time title winner stated of her new coach after advancing to the US Open quarter-final. But Gauff has since came upon that she had nothing to fret about.
She continued: “He’s older but he still has the mind of, like, a 20-year-old, maybe even younger, a 10-year-old kid sometimes. The guy has offered me Jolly Ranchers. I don’t know if you knew this. My favourite Brad story is he played pretty much every match with a Jolly Rancher in his mouth.”
But the world No 6 hasn’t been consuming the sweets on provide. “He’s been giving me Jolly Ranchers all the time. I take them but I don’t eat them. At this point I can’t have Jolly Ranchers every five minutes. So that’s my favourite Brad story,” she smiled.
The sweets weren’t the one factor that made an impression on Gauff, as she had additionally picked up on another uncommon traits in her new mentor. “He also doesn’t like even numbers,” she continued.
“He only likes odd numbers. Whenever he says something, you ask him what time it is, he’s going to say 1:53 or 1:59. He won’t say 12 or something basic. That’s my favourite Brad story.
“He’s just a really quirky man. He doesn’t sleep. He wakes up at 3:30 every morning. He was doing this in D.C. He goes for walks. He also has been sending me crazy playlists of ’60s and ’70s bands, but I haven’t kept up with it.”
But the addition of Gilbert to Gauff’s workforce has been working a deal with. Since they obtained collectively, {the teenager}’s solely loss got here towards her doubles accomplice Jessica Pegula within the Canadian Open quarter-final. And she will likely be hoping issues keep that means as she faces Jelena Ostapenko within the final eight of the US Open.