Former world No. 1 Andy Roddick has preached patience with Cori Gauff as he believes the 18-year-old is still one of the most promising players on the WTA Tour and definitely capable of achieving big things in the future. Gauff turned 18 in March but she has been around since 2019 and some expected she would achieve more by this time.
Also, the rise of 20-year-old Iga Swiatek kinda shifted the focus away from Gauff to the Pole. “I think we take her for granted a little bit just because we’ve gotten to know her for a minute now, right?” Roddick said on Tennis Channel.
“She’s been around. It’s got to be what three four years since that Wimbledon run, but I like her forehand a little bit better on the on the slower surfaces. “She has time to actually create her natural trajectory.
Which is a little bit more of a loop. I think her serving out a tough one was good for her. I think on the heels of last week in Madrid where, you know, frankly there’s no other way to say it and I love Coco, but her serve completely fell apart at the end of the match against Halep last week.”
Roddick happy with how Gauff responded in Rome
In Madrid, Gauff was beaten in the round-of-16 by Simona Halep. Gauff collapsed after going up by a break in the second set versus Halep as the Romanian won 6-4 6-4. This Monday, Gauff defeated former world No.
1 Angelique Kerber 6-1 6-4. “For her to kind of take that bump, it wasn’t pretty, it had to be some stressful conversations afterwards and to come back and kind of re-gauge everything and come out and play a really strong match against Angie Kerber,” Roddick said.
“I thought it was a great performance for Coco. Especially there had to be a little bit of lingering scar tissue after last week’s loss in the way it happened.”
