Coco Gauff's father Corey pokes fun at the 19-year-old as she indulges in a book between practice sessions at Indian Wells
Coco Gauff's father Corey poked fun at the reigning US Open champion as he captured her reading a book.
Gauff, who has had a wobbly spell after starting the season strongly, is set to start her Indian Wells campaign with a doubles match alongside Jessica Pegula. The all-American fifth-seeded duo will face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin. On 9 March, the WTA World No. 3 will kickstart her singles campaign against Clara Burel.
Corey, Gauff's father, who is also a vital member of the 19-year-old's team, recently saw his daughter reading a book as she took a break from practice. He wasted no time in capturing it and later shared the image on social media.
It showed Gauff sitting on a chair outdoors reading Fourth Wing, an adult fantasy novel written by Rebecca Yarros. The novel was released in May 2023 and reached No. 1 on The New York Times' bestseller list after going viral on BookTok, TikTok's reading community. Corey's post also featured a caption, which poked fun at Gauff.
"If sitting on top of the world was a person", he wrote in an Instagram post.
Gauff commented on Corey's post, calling her father 'funny'.
"You're funny," she wrote in her comment, preceded by 3 laughing-out-loud emojis.
Coco Gauff has been likened to Andre Agassi by Brad Gilbert
Brad Gilbert, who is currently coaching Coco Gauff and has previously worked with Andre Agassi, drew a striking parallel between his past and present pupils.
In a recent interview, the iconic coach spoke at length about Gauff's weakness. According to him, it's not her forehand, but her perfectionism — a trait that also characterized his former pupil Agassi.
"Coco definitely shares a big-time trait with Andre in that she's a perfectionist. Crazy perfectionist. That's probably the thing from early on that I noticed instantly. And I told her, 'The pursuit of perfection doesn't exist. It makes you miserable, chasing it. And you're never satisfied with being good.'" Gilbert told Vogue.
Gilbert also stressed on what Gauff must do to avoid losses due to her obsession with being a perfectionist.
"She's just always gotta be better. Andre was the same. And it's like, 'You only gotta be better than the lady on the other side of the net.' That's it. This whole being-better-than-you-need-to-be costs you a lot of matches."