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Journalism of Courage
Parents normally tell their teenagers to watch their language, but Coco Gauff turned the tables on her father on Thursday during her second-round clash with Laura Siegemund at the Auckland Classic.
The 15-year-old Gauff had taken the first set off the German and was receiving some coaching advice in the changeover from her father, Corey, about what she should do to ensure she advanced to the quarter-finals.
“The one thing you did … you didn’t give out no free points on her damn serve,” Corey Gauff told his daughter as a television microphone picked up the conversation.
“You can’t curse,” she replied with a deadpan look on her face.
“I cursed?” an incredulous Corey asked.
“You said the D-word,” his daughter retorted as a smile spread slowly across her face.
“Oh, that one doesn’t really count,” he quizzically replied.
“In some places it does,” she admonished him.
Corey Gauff, now laughing himself, apologised.
“OK, I’m sorry about that,” he said.
The playful banter, however, failed to spark Gauff, who had been inconsistent in the first set and the 31-year-old German capitalised to win the match 5-7 6-2 6-3.
Gauff told reporters that she felt she still had a lot to learn from playing at the top level, but that her basic game was there to build on.
“I don’t think there was much missing,” Gauff said. “I just told my dad that I didn’t feel like I was hitting my shots like I normally do. That just happens, you have bad days, you can’t play your best tennis every day.”
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