WTA Stuttgart: Coco Gauff Breaks Silence Over Astounding Move to Re-Hire Old Mentor To Sit Beside Brad Gilbert

Surprising the fraternity, the reigning US Open champion Coco Gauff brought her former coach back into her team. Gauff worked with this particular coach from November 2019 to December 2020. The re-hired coach will now join Brad Gilbert to help the American WTA star further finetune her already impressive abilities.

In a press conference at the Stuttgart Open, Gauff was asked about how she felt regarding reuniting with Jean-Christophe again. In her response, the youngster offered very positive feedback as she recalled working with him since she was fourteen. She further mentioned that their previous collaboration ended due to unforeseen circumstances. She said- “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.”

Gauff stated that she always wanted to “go back to him”. “So the timing worked where I was looking for someone, and we worked well together. I’m really excited to be back with him,” she said.

“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. Yeah, it’s good. I’m glad that, you know, the government let us be together again,” she further added.

Like Coco Gauff, her former coach Jean-Christophe Faurel was equally delighted about this collaboration. This famous coach previously spoke highly of his talented pupil.

Jean Christophe Faurel says he knew that Coco Gauff “was going to be an outstanding athlete”

In an interview with Olympics.com, the French coach revealed that he met Gauff when the WTA star was just ten. Witnessing her rise through the ranks from close quarters, Faurel believed Gauff had the “winning instinct” and that she would go on to achieve more success in the future. In Faurel’s words– “When I saw Coco Gauff at 10, I knew she was going to be an outstanding athlete. She’s clearly the fastest and most explosive player on the circuit by a long way. She’s a real competitive player, she’s a winning player. At fifteen, she beat Venus at Wimbledon. At sixteen, she beat Naomi Osaka, world number one in Australia. She has this winning instinct, which is a huge quality.”

Faurel, a member of the elite tennis center Jean-Rene Lisnard for Alexander Muller, had significantly contributed to building Gauff’s foundations as she navigated her career in professional tennis.

Now, Gauff’s statement about Faurel’s return to her team represented her faith in Jean-Christophe’s mentorship. Do you think the reunion will work wonders for Gauff in her tennis career? Let us know in the comment section below.