American tennis star Coco Gauff has had a troublesome 2024 and some experts think that she needs a break to protect her own mental health.
The 20-year-old is still an up-and-coming force in tennis but her obvious talent means that there is a lot of expectation on her.
There certainly was when she arrived at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. There was genuine belief that she should be in the frame for a gold medal and much less would have been disappointing.
As it turned out, she was only able to make it to the quarter-finals and left the games under a dark cloud.
Gauff then turned her attention to the Canadian Open but she was again beaten in an early round by a lower-ranked opponent. She then failed to defend her title at the Cincinnati Open, and that means she has had constant disappointment in a short space of time.
Former tennis player Monica Puig has claimed when speaking to Tennis Channel that Gauff needs a ‘mental reset’ before she will be able to compete properly again.
She said: “I would love to see her make a mental reset. We know the type of tennis she is capable of playing. She needs to focus on serving well, playing the aggressive game style. But, maybe put the US Open and what happened last year behind and start fresh and just build from there.”
Gauff recently spoke herself about the struggles, saying: “I feel like I have to work on consistency, overall. I’ll probably go home and try to reset.”
Moreover, she also pointed out what led to her below-par performance against her opponent. “I made a lot of errors, especially when I was up 4-2 (in the third set). I think most of the points she won were off my errors.”
