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“I’m grateful for my fellow Team USA athletes for nominating me and allowing me to hold this honor,” Coco Gauff said of being USA.’s flag bearer for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Unfortunately, her debut performance at the Games met an early exit in all three events: singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. But there was one silver lining: she joined basketball legend LeBron James as the flagbearer during the opening ceremony. But did that add a layer of nervousness to Gauff’s adventure in Paris? Monica Puig, a former WTA player, has a clear perspective on this!
The Puerto Rican former player, Puig, appeared for an interview with Steve Weissman in the August 15th episode of the Tennis Channel Live podcast. She shared why she can now heave a sigh of relief as Gauff embarks on her Cincinnati Masters. In the latter half of the show, the co-host, Weissman, asked, “Coco Gauff excited to see her in action. She can take on Yulia Putintseva; she hasn’t lost a match against her….how do you see this one going?”
Puig responded, “I like the odds in her favor. I would like to start seeing her get some momentum going. I know maybe the Olympics was a lot for her from being the flag bearer, being around LeBron. All the buzz was pretty much on her from the get-go. Maybe feeling a little bit of the pressure knowing that she has to defend here in Cincinnati, that US Open title.”
As Puig mentioned, Gauff’s Olympic journey was a rollercoaster. After missing Tokyo due to COVID-19 in 2021, she aimed for gold in Paris. As the U.S. flag bearer, the world No. 2 faced immense pressure. Despite a strong start, Gauff struggled on the clay, highlighting the challenges of balancing Olympic duties with individual performance.
While in singles, it was Donna Vekic who ended her reign in the second round, in doubles, her partnership with Jessica Pegula also did not have the desired outcome. Along with that, her mixed doubles match alongside Taylor Fritz also ended in the quarterfinals, leaving fans wondering about the reason behind her early exits. Referring to this, Puig stated that being alongside the greatest legends of the sport might be one of the reasons that pressured her even more.
However, the reigning U.S. Open champion is now coming back to her familiar territory in the back-to-back tournaments of Cincinnati and the U.S. Open, which she won last year. And now, as she takes on Putintseva, whom she has defeated three times earlier, fans and former tennis players like Puig are hoping that “a good solid match(at Cincinnati) will really start getting things rolling for her.”
While her Olympic results might not be ideal, either way, for Gauff, it was nothing less than magical, as she herself admitted later on.
Gauff reveals the “lessons” she learned from her 2024 Paris Olympics event
Gauff, who wanted to excel in all the events of tennis at the Paris Olympics, knew the early eliminations were bound to have a negative impact on her confidence. But Gauff knows how to navigate around it and uses it as her motivation to perform better. In an old interview, she even talked about how she is able to see beyond the expectations and pressure that she feels as a player. The 20-year-old does that by comparing her situation to those who struggle to find their next meal and have to go through more intense pressure on a daily basis.
Therefore, her idea is clear: take your lessons from your failures and do not let heavy expectations pull you down. This same sentiment was palpable in her recent statements about the Paris Olympics. “Obviously, it didn’t go how I wanted, but it’s an experience of a lifetime. The people I got to meet, the lessons I got to learn through that I think I’ll take for the rest of my life. I’m trying to be more aggressive, which I’m happy about, but I think my mentality can be more positive to myself on the court.”
Now that Gauff has moved on to her next tournament, we are waiting to see her take control on-court like she usually does!
