De retour pour jouer un mauvais tour. Coco Gauff, 20 ans, dispute déjà son sixième (!) Open d'Australie. Contrairement à Roland-Garros ou l'US Open, la finale lui échappe encore à Melbourne. 2025 sera peut-être la bonne. Une chose est sûre : la forme est là. La n°3 mondiale vient de remporter la United Cup avec les Etats-Unis, en faisant un sans-faute d'un point de vue personnel. Elle est sur sept victoires consécutives et semble avoir améliorer certains axes de son jeu comme le service, qui lui avait coûté cher à New York en septembre.
Photo : @AustralianOpen
Photo : @AustralianOpen
Category
🥇
SportTranscription
00:00Yeah I had a great time at United Cup it was super fun probably the most fun
00:07event I've ever played and yeah I'm feeling happy to be back in Australia
00:10and looking forward to hopefully having a good good week here good two weeks
00:14questions yeah go ahead I think just being relaxed and being chill I think
00:33for me it's like I know I've been playing well but you know I can't play
00:37well all the time so I know there's gonna be some tough moments in this
00:40tournament and yeah and you know hopefully I can get through them but I
00:43think just going in entering with no pressure and just trying to stay in the
00:48moment and enjoy it as much as possible and that's what I've been doing the last
00:51few tournaments and you know the results have you know obviously been good
00:56because of that but you know just trying to learn to do that even when the
01:00results aren't so good so I'm curious how you would describe the last few
01:08months working with Matt and what are the sort of the big things that he's
01:12brought to you and working with JC and sort of like how their combination has
01:17worked together and any changes you've you've made and how you either approach
01:24so big picture or even just small things that you're doing differently yeah I
01:28think well Matt and JC I think that first of all they're just very good
01:31people and instill like a lot of confidence into me so I think you know
01:34when you step on court with confidence and it makes a big difference in your
01:38game so just constantly having positive reinforcement and you know also just
01:42like you know keeping things real like knowing that there's gonna be good days
01:46and bad days and you know never making me feel judged because of that and yeah
01:51obviously there's been things on my game that I've been working on you know serve
01:54a lot of things but there have been improvements and I feel it on the court
02:00and I think it's just a reminder to keep improving and keep you know even if
02:05it's uncomfortable trying to focus on that long-term path and and making sure
02:09that you know I'm making the adjustments that I need to hopefully have a good
02:13career long term oh yeah for sure I mean in Beijing like I would've won that
02:21tournament in Wuhan too but I was uncomfortable on the court every every
02:25match and I obviously didn't show it and like I didn't show it because I knew
02:31that going into the tournament I was gonna allow myself to get frustrated but
02:35those are the things you do when you're working on your game you're not you're
02:38working to either break habits or create new habits so it's you know just finding
02:42that but yeah I felt uncomfortable in a good way though just things that you're
02:46trying things that you're not used to not in a bad way
02:51just on that subject of feeling comfortable or uncomfortable I just I
02:56know you've you've now had a few months of this and the results have been pretty
03:00astonishing yeah um have you ever felt more comfortable in your own game
03:05generally even thinking back to when you won the US Open than you do now yeah
03:10definitely more than than the US Open for sure I always said I felt like I
03:14didn't play my best tennis in that that tournament I I thought Cincinnati was
03:18like my best tournament definitely but I feel more comfortable like now than
03:24ever I think at that at this point and I think it's just not even from the fact
03:29of the changes I think I just realized like the unimportance of like winning or
03:35losing a match I think you know as athletes sometimes we get caught up and
03:38just losing feels like the end of the world and winning feels like something
03:43that we should do not something that we should be grateful for and no one makes
03:47us feel like it's up ourselves so I think I just realized that it's never
03:51ever that important and just knowing that you know if I could step off the
03:54court and say okay I tried my best and then that's all I can ask for so I think
03:58every time I go on to the court I just tell myself to try my best and you know
04:02if I miss a shot if I lose most matches I are decided by a few points so I think
04:07I just realized that sometimes they're gonna go my way and sometimes they're
04:10not happy new year how different do you feel as a player with all these
04:16adjustments you've made to your games in your grips in terms of what you it's our
04:20toolbox you have on court of your shots that's been especially watching you
04:23against Iga it just seemed like a lot of different patterns that maybe used to
04:26work for her weren't really there for her anymore and you have other things
04:29you can do in that matchup specifically how different do you feel in terms of
04:32the other kind of arsenal the toolbox you have yeah I think yeah I think for
04:37me I feel like you know I have a bit more tools to work with and also I think
04:41just you know just going for my shots more and being more okay with missing
04:47and taking chances and before I feel like you know a lot I want a lot of
04:51matches just being able to get like a lot of balls back but you know I realized
04:55that that's not the way to play if I want to you know have more success on
04:58tour just because you know girls are hitting harder and harder every day and
05:02being more aggressive so yeah I just feel like that was the difference I
05:07think that I'm able to you know be aggressive also you know run around the
05:10court if I need to which against Iga like you you know no matter how big of a
05:14hitter you are you're gonna have to run a little bit Irena said the same thing
05:18and she probably has the biggest at all of us so yeah it's a lot of writing but
05:22and then you just have to take your chances when you can that's not realized
05:25that it's not only against first against everybody and yeah the tour I think is
05:30has so much depth that I just feel like you know you have to bring you know try
05:34to bring your a-game like regardless of who you're playing whether it's you know
05:37world number one or world number 100 question that Howard hey question about
05:43your first round opponent your reaction to once again seeing Sophia Kennon and
05:49she's a Grand Slam champion here what's makes her so dangerous to see early in a
05:53tournament of this size yeah I think for me I mean obviously I lost her at
05:57Wimbledon and then she's obviously a great great player she won this
06:01tournament and I think she's a great mover she has a great like great
06:06groundstrokes pretty steady player can play aggressive also play really good
06:10defense so it's gonna be a tough match my reaction I found out on court when I
06:14was doing the mixed doubles last night so I don't really haven't thought about
06:17it since much sense but I think it's good for me though I've had pretty much
06:21I feel like every match this year so far has been against tough opponents so I
06:25think that was one thing I think United Cup for it was kind of in the first
06:30tournament in a while they're outside of the WTA finals where I had to play you
06:34know a top player like soon and so I feel like I've definitely in match ready
06:38for that type of level that's Sophia will bring Howard and then we'll go here
06:44okay what time of day do you prefer to play um honestly I like everything like
06:54I know this I mean maybe not no one ever likes the graveyard shift but I
06:59love night because the energy of the crowd but I mean I love day because I
07:04feel like I can handle the heat just being from Florida basically better than
07:08anyone other than people from Florida so yeah honestly I mean I've US Open I've
07:15that's probably one of the tournaments I get to request this few things and yeah
07:20I've requested both day and night and I don't care honestly I'm one of those
07:25players that don't care obviously no one likes to play after the men the second
07:28night match you never know how long they're gonna go so I would prefer not
07:31that but if I'm I have to be up late I'm ready I usually don't go to sleep till
07:36like midnight or 1 a.m. anyways on a regular day I like the nighttime wake up
07:43early do you not like seeing the let's say in 11 a.m. or um no cuz like when I
07:49practice at home I practice this pre offseas I practice like 8 9 a.m. because
07:54I like like to have that so when I practice I practice early it's just
07:58because I like to have the afternoon to myself so I am able to like I can get up
08:01early and I'm not like slow to wake up once I you know get some food into me
08:06I'm pretty much good all right last two will go here and then Charlie yeah so
08:13you obviously have a very exciting rivalry with Iga lately you have been
08:17able to get some wins under your belt obviously taking nothing away from you
08:23you have found some solutions but do you see a drop in her confidence level after
08:28what she's come she's gone through in the after the doping case um no I mean I
08:34wouldn't say she's dropped her confidence I mean for me I mean I don't
08:40I don't know like her personally well but like just from the interactions that
08:44we've had I definitely don't think anything that she did was intentional so
08:48I feel like I don't think she was maybe I mean I didn't know like I found out
08:53what the rest of the world so I don't think she was I don't think she is not
08:56confident in herself I mean she's playing great tennis and you know the
09:00match we played I just happened to be like a little better that day and maybe
09:04won a few points that but it could have easily went the other way so no I don't
09:08I think she's fine I mean I don't know her well enough to tell you like if you
09:13know if she feels some type of way about it but yeah I can just say from
09:17what I see I think she's doing fine and you know she's still number two on the
09:21world and playing amazing tennis and you know she's always gonna play amazing
09:26tennis so yeah I think she'll she'll be fine
09:29Charlie last question yeah there was a period where that head-to-head was a bit
09:35lopsided how much when when you've got a situation like that is do you have to
09:39say all right I've got to make some tweaks specifically to this player or do
09:43you just say no I trust that you know eventually it will turn around um I guess
09:48I just trust like I know not just against her but anyone like I know that
09:52I had to make some adjustments like just everybody's making adjustments just to
09:56try to do better and win but when like honestly in that situation like playing
10:01her obviously like it you know it's kind of just one especially now at this point
10:06so bad so it's just one of those things it's just like you know if you lose
10:10whatever it's another one on the board and if you win great so yeah I just
10:15think of it like like that instead of before I think I just put too much
10:19pressure like okay like I'm lost this person so many times and honestly it
10:23doesn't feel like we've played that each other that many times I'm like how many
10:27times are gonna see each other but yeah I think it's just one of those
10:30situations that you know I know what I feel like I know what I'm gonna have to
10:35do against her but is it gonna work that day it's kind of like how I execute or
10:40how she executes I mean I feel like now when we play each other it's like off a
10:45few points just like even though our matches four and four but it could
10:48easily been the other way or three sets it's just literally like down to three
10:52or four points and that's just tennis but I feel like when she loses matches
10:55in general I think it's literally down to three four points because she is a
10:58great a great player so yeah