“No matter what I do, I don’t think anything I’ll do will compare to what Serena Williams did” – Gauff aspires to be among the greats

Coco Gauff is already a Grand Slam champion at the age of 19. But the American teen has big ambitions and wants to be in the conversation for all-time greats in women’s tennis by the time she is done with her career.

Competing in the Dubai Dutry Free Tennis Championships this week, Gauff revealed that she has big goals for her career even though she knows it would be impossible to surpass the achievements of countrywoman Serena Williams.

Williams retired from the game in September 2022 with 23 Grand Slam singles titles- the most by any woman in the Open Era – and is widely considered the G.O.A.T. in women’s tennis.

“Obviously, there’s only going to be one greatest of all time and I just feel like no matter what I do, I don’t think anything I’ll do will compare to what Serena (Williams) did for the sport and the game and with the amount of times she won,” Gauff told The National.

“But I definitely would like to be, when I retire, people, when they think of the best players, I’d like to be in that conversation. So hopefully I can do better and continue to do better. It’s a big goal. It’s a lot to try to do. But again, I feel like if I put a ceiling on something, then I’ll stop at that ceiling or even worse, stop under it. So I just want to make things as limitless as possible. And at the end, when I put my racquets up, I can say I did everything I could to do all the things I wanted to.”

“I always say I pray for peace in the region” – Coco Gauff

Besides her success on court, Gauff is also making a big impact off the court, often taking a vocal stance on issues that she considers important. While competing in the Mid-East this week, Gauff spoke about the current situation in Gaza and said she would like to see more peace in the region.

“I feel like it would be ignorant to say I’m not aware, I’m very aware of everything that’s going on in Gaza,” she said. “For me, I always say I pray for peace in the region. And I really don’t like what’s going on. For me, it’s sometimes troubling to live the life I live, in knowing that so many kids and innocent people are dying on both ends, but especially in what’s going on in Gaza and the occupation that’s happening In my position, I know there’s not much I can do other than raise awareness and donate. So that’s what I encourage everyone to do and just pray for peace and demand peace and demand that this stops happening.”

“And I do advocate for peace and I advocate for the thousands, I think it’s almost like I said millions at this point, of kids and innocent people being killed for a conflict that I feel like shouldn’t be happening.”

Gauff will continue her quest for more success on court when she takes on former world No 1 Karolina Pliskova, who is in a 11-match winning streak. in the third round in Dubai.

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