Everywhere Andy Roddick went in New York in the days leading up to the US Open, people wanted to talk to him about one tennis player.
And it wasn’t Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal or Serena Williams.
It was 15-year-old sensation Coco Gauff, who will make her US Open main-draw debut at 3 p.m on Tuesday in Louis Armstrong Stadium against Anastasia Potapova of Russia.
Still, when Roddick passed Gauff the other day at the Open, even he was too overwhelmed to say hello.
“I walked past her over here and I was starstruck, I couldn’t say hello,” said Roddick, who won the 2003 US Open a year before Gauff was born.
Thousands of tennis fans in New York will get to say hello to Gauff this week, as she debuts in singles and doubles at the Open after making a magical run to the fourth round of Wimbledon. Gauff was given wildcards into both the singles and doubles draws, where she will play with fellow teenager Caty McNally.
Gauff is coming off an impressive victory over world No. 2 Ash Barty, the French Open champion, in an exhibition last week in North Carolina.
At Wimbledon, she stunned Venus Williams in the first round before falling to eventual champion Simona Halep in the quarterfinals.
Gauff could meet another Grand Slam champion, defending US Open champ Naomi Osaka, in the third round in New York.
Still, American tennis has seen teenage sensations rise and fall before, and Roddick cautions fans to be patient with Gauff.
“I personally don’t want to see her on Arthur Ashe Stadium the first night of the tournament in front of 25,000 people,” he said. “Two months ago, the average person didn’t know who she was and now she’s hanging out with Michelle Obama. She’s going to be a star and I really believe in the hype around her ability.”
“I hope everyone’s patient. I know we always want the next one, but she’ll get there. It’s going to seem like an eternity until she’s 17. She has plenty of time. She’s going to be a star for a long time so I hope the powers that be treat that with a little sensitivity.”
Roddick watched Gauff against Venus Williams at Wimbledon and was struck by her serve and her movement.
“When you’re 15, the two things that are guaranteed to get better are movement and serve, whether that’s speed, spin, placement,” he said. “It’s just a shot that’s going to be better at 21 than it is at 15. She’s already serving 115, 118 (mph) and she’s on the shortlist of best servers in the game.”
Gauff’s parents, Corey and Candi Gauff, are both former athletes, who are guiding their daughter’s career. Corey played college basketball at Georgia State and Candi was a track and field star at Florida State.
The family moved to Florida so their daughter could excel at tennis.
Tennis — especially women’s tennis — is filled with cautionary tales (see: Jennifer Capriati and Jelena Dokic).
Corey, who serves as Coco’s coach, has been studying those storylines since his daughter was six or seven years old
“I went through everybody I thought was relevant, that won Grand Slams and were good young,” he told Chris Clarey of The New York Times. “I went through every one of their situations and looked at where they were at a certain age, what they were doing. I asked a lot of questions because I was concerned about burnout. Am I doing the right things?”
He added: “I studied and studied to prepare myself to make sure if she was able to meet these goals that we’d be able to help the right way. That was important. I still sit there and benchmark: ‘O.K., we’re at this point now. How is she doing physically? Is she growing? This is what Capriati did at this stage. This is what (Martina) Hingis did at this stage, what the Williams sisters did at this stage.’”
The elder Gauff said he was focused on preventing injury, and also paying attention to how many matches and tournaments his daughter plays. Due to her age, Gauff faces a WTA-imposed limit on the number of tournaments she can play.
“She seems to have a great group of people around her,” Roddick said. “I think she needs to look inward and not outward. Everyone’s going to have an opinion. There’s going to be a lot of new faces…I would like to see her team become even tighter.”
“If she loses first round of the US Open, she’s still the same prospect that she is today. It’s a setback, she’ll get there, ignore the noise.”
