Venus and Serena Williams' achievements at another level, says Coco Gauff, denies any pressure of living up to them
Coco Gauff says she does not feel the weight of expectation when faced with Venus and Serena Williams' legacy.
Coco Gauff has managed to carve a niche for herself at quite a young age. Having first broken out on the big stage at Wimbledon as a 15-year-old, she is now one of the top-ranked players in the world. Seeded seventh at the 2023 Australian Open, The American opened her campaign with a dominant win over Czech Republic's Katerina Sinialova. Gauff, who came into the Australian Open in pursuit of her maiden Grand Slam title, was ruthless in her first match — dropping just five games en-route to a 6-1, 6-4 win.
Addressing the burden of expectations and comparisons being drawn with the legendary duo of Venus and Serena Williams in her post-match press conference, Gauff said she did not feel like she quite belonged at the level of Williams sisters just yet. The youngster said it was "really hard" to reach the heights that Williams sisters did in their careers.
"I feel like not really. I feel like what Serena Williams and Venus has done is still at another level," Guaff said. "I feel like it's very hard to, I guess, feel like you belong on that level or that you should take over that mantle that they did."
She added that there was no point feeling any pressure to match those results knowing that Serena Williams has 20-something Grand and she herself has none yet.
"It's very hard to, I guess, put myself in that position of feeling pressure," she contiued. "Let's say Serena only won like two slams, then maybe I would feel it a little bit more, but I think 20-something," Gauff said.
Coco Gauff looking to follow in Venus and Serena Williams footsteps
While Coco Gauff is looking to follow in the footsteps Williams sisters— both of whom have had big wins in Melbourne over the years — she is taking things one match at a time.
Addressing the current crop of top American women's tennis players including herself and Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff said the two were just getting started. She added that their focus was on getting the first Grand Slam win before anything else.
"I don't know, is a lot," Coco Gauff said. "So I'm just starting off with one. I feel like Jess and I are just trying to start with one."
Dubbing both Venus and Serena Williams as worthy of GOAT status, Gauff said she and Pegula were "not even close" to that level at this point.
"Yes, we feel pressure being the top Americans and want to do well for our country but I feel they're [Venus and Serena Williams] on the Greatest of All Time (G.O.A.T.) status and we're not even close to reaching that so there's no need for us to put pressure on ourselves for that yet," she added.