Coco Gauff says she is definitely feeling now that rivals have that extra motivation when they face her but underlines that she is not looking at it negatively but rather as something that can only make her a better player.
After becoming a Grand Slam champion and reaching the world No. 2 ranking over the last 11 months, 20-year-old Gauff is now widely considered one of the top players in the game. But that has also come with a price as the 2023 US Open champion sees that she now has a target on her back.
The most recent case of that happened on Thursday in Toronto, where world No. 72 Wang Yafan put up a very hard fight and resistance before Gauff completed a 6-4 6-4 win. While Gauff has been pretty consistent throughout 2024, she did pick up back-to-back round-of-16 surprise losses in her last two tournaments – she lost to Emma Navarro at Wimbledon and Donna Vekic at the Paris Olympics, respectively.
“Yeah, it’s definitely difficult. I feel like a lot of times people play their best tennis against the higher-ranked players, and that’s just because they have nothing to lose, so it’s definitely a difference. Yeah, but I think overall it just makes me better. If everybody’s playing me at their high level it can only make me better,” Gauff said.
