“For the clay court season this year, I’m really optimistic,” US Open champion said of lofty dirt goals.
Coco Gauff knows all about the demands of multi-tasking on clay courts.
The former French Open finalist in singles and doubles launches her clay campaign in Stuttgart this week with a dual goal.
The 2022 Roland Garros runner-up is on a mission to win her first clay-court title since 2021 and make a run at Roland Garros.
“I think clay and hard are definitely my favorite surfaces,” Gauff told the media in Stuttgart today. “Again, I can play well on all of them depending on how I show up to a tournament, honestly.
“But for the clay court season this year, I’m really optimistic. Obviously the goal is to win French Open, but that’s every season of any top player. I mean, your goals should be to try to win the big tournament.”
Reigning US Open champion Gauff owns a 15-4 career record and 79 percent career winning percentage at Roland Garros—her best winning percentage at a Grand Slam.
“But I’m not looking at French Open right now. I’m focused on Stuttgart,” Gauff told the media in Stuttgart. “You know, I want to win, try to win Madrid or Rome or here, just because I can’t remember — the last time I won a clay court title was, like, a couple years ago if I’m not mistaken.
“So I kind of just want to get a recent clay title under my belt. So any of the ones along the next couple weeks would be nice.”
Gearing up her game for clay, Gauff has reunited with former coach Jean-Cristophe Faurel adding him to her team headed by coach Brad Gilbert.
“I added Jean-Christophe, I call him J.C., to my team. I started with him when I was 14,” Gauff said. “He was with me with that incredible run at Wimbledon. It actually wasn’t either of our choices to stop working together. He was having visa issues and couldn’t get into the U.S. for, like, a long time, a couple years.
“So once he got that all figured out and it became a perfect opportunity and the timing worked to be back together, I knew when we had stopped I always wanted to go back to him when all of that stuff got sorted.
“So the timing worked where I was looking for someone, and we worked well together. I’m really excited to be back with him. It’s nice to have someone on my team that knows me since I was young and knows me well. So I’m really, really excited to have him back on the team.”
Photo credit: Internazionali BNL d’Italia