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Coco Gough Hopefully those who ask her questions about the teenager’s breakthrough at the Australian Open remember one thing: She’s 21 years old.
18-year-old Eva Jovic will play against world no. Alina Sabalenka in the quarter finals Melbourne garden. Australia’s two-time champion Sabalenka defeated 19-year-old Vicky Mboko in the fourth round on Sunday.
“The way people ask questions makes me look much older than these teenagers,” Goff said. “Obviously, I’ve been around longer, but, yeah, they always ask, ‘Do you have any advice for them?’
“I’m, like, you, these, like, my peers. We’re the same. We hang out together,” she added with a smile, for effect. “We’re in the same age group.”
Gough has been touring for over five years now – and she’s achieved amazing results grand slam At 15, she made her debut in a Wimbledon qualifying match against five-time champion Venus Williams, but she remains one of the young pros. At the age of 19, she won her first Grand Slam title.
The third-seeded and two-time Grand Slam champion, Gauff defeated No. 19 Karolina Muchova 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 on Sunday to reach the Australian quarterfinals for the third consecutive year.
She has won each of her four previous matches against Muchova, including the 2023 U.S. Open, her first Grand Slam title. when she was a teenager.
Three teenagers competed in the fourth round on Sunday, but only Jovic advanced – beating Yulia Putintseva 6-0, 6-1.
Mboko gave Sabalenka trouble in the second set but lost 6-1, 7-6 (1). In the last match of the eighth day, 18-year-old eighth seed Mira Andreeva lost 6-2, 6-4 to 31-year-old Elena Svitolina, who had reached the Grand Slam quarterfinals for the 14th time. The opponent will be Gauff, who has entered the quarterfinals for the tenth time.
Goff said she found it difficult when she was adjusting from the youth team to the professional team because some players didn’t speak or even say hello.
Therefore, she goes out of her way to greet newcomers and make them feel welcome.
“Just to say hello or wish you good luck,” Goff said. “Then you start talking and you become friends, which is cool.”
For Jovic, who was just playing her sixth Grand Slam and reaching the second round for the first time, Gauff has a sisterly affinity.
“Yeah, she’s the same age as my brother,” Goff said. “I do feel older than them. That’s for sure. I don’t feel exactly the same, but I don’t feel as old as people look.”
“I’ve spoken to Eva a few times. I’ve never spoken to her about advice or anything – I think she has a lot of brains. I don’t think she needs that.”
Gauff had few peers when she first started working, which she says was “very isolating for me, to be honest.”
While she is friends with the likes of Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula, and Amanda Anisimova, she sometimes doesn’t “connect” with everything, so she still likes to hang out with the younger crowd sometimes.
“We’re interested in the same things and similar things, but it’s always interesting when people ask me this question about budding teenagers,” she said. “I usually don’t have much to say because I’m still figuring it out, just like they are.
“So it’s nice that there are more guys my age doing better. I feel like maybe the last two years on tour have been my happiest two years, even though tennis can have its ups and downs, just because you see more friendly faces in the dressing room.”
Jovic Grand Slam plan
Jovic may be around for a while. She said last year that she wanted to challenge No. 1 Sabalenka because she wanted to test her level. She got her chance after her best performance in a major to date.
“Obviously the Grand Slams are where you want to do well,” she said. “Competing in Grand Slam tournaments gives me confidence that I can reach the highest level of tennis. And hopefully continue to achieve those results.”
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