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Coco Gauff is giving an insight into her preparation before stepping onto the tennis court. The athlete recently talked about one of the superstitions that came after winning the US Open, involving her dad Corey Gauff.
During a recent interview at the Australian Open after defeating Magdalena Frech, Coco’s mom Candi Gauff was spotted cheering for her in her box, however, her dad was missing in the celebration, to which Coco explained that it involved a superstition.
“My dad is here, but I don’t know where,” she said in the interview. “My mom is better at keeping her nerves under control in the box, but my dad tends to use some words that I can’t repeat right now. Whenever I hear him say those words, I get mad. So, we agreed that he can go somewhere else around the stadium to say them.”
She also explained that instead her dad walks around the stadium and watches her on the field, with Coco being more comfortable if she doesn’t see his dad’s nerves taking over. The tennis star also talked about a sweet and empowering message she carries on her sneakers.
“You can change the world with your racquet,” the phrase reads. She went on to explain that it’s something that her dad used to say to her from a very young age, and it has a special place in her heart. “Another thing written on my shoe is the coordinate of the park I grew up at in Florida,” Gauff said. “I grew up playing on public tennis courts.”
“Sometimes when my mom thinks I’m negative when I look down, I’m just looking at my shoe, just a reminder that life is much more than tennis, how I do on the court does not define me as a person,” she said during the interview.