The key tip Coco Gauff got from a two-time Slam winner before beating Venus Williams

Coco Gauff has been climbing the ranks ever since she first broke through as a teenage sensation.

Her first taste of WTA main draw action came in Miami back in 2019, and not long after, she found herself on the big stage at Wimbledon.

Gauff really made her mark at the All England Club that year, taking down Venus Williams in her opening match and grabbing everyone’s attention in the process.

Just 15 at the time, Gauff took a moment to thank Williams after their match, recognising how much of an influence Venus had been on her journey so far.

What Mary Joe Fernandez told Coco Gauff before her Wimbledon clash with Venus Williams

But before taking the court, she received some key advice from Mary Joe Fernandez, a three-time Grand Slam singles finalist and two-time doubles champion.

Gauff spoke about it in an interview with Forbes, where she said: “Yeah. Even now, like moments when I watch that back, it doesn’t feel like me, I just feel like I’m watching somebody else.

“I remember when the draw came out, my dad was like, ‘Oh, you have Venus’. And I remember inside being ‘Oh, that’s great’.

“Obviously you’re hoping to play someone maybe ranked a lot lower and not Venus in your first match, which I was definitely hoping for.

“But I felt like for me, I just thought that, okay well I have nothing to lose out there. So I was like let me go out there and just see what I can do.”

The 21-year-old added: “And I actually had a conversation with Mary Joe Fernandez, she’s a three-time Slam finalist before that, and she was like, ‘Don’t go out there and see how many games you can get, go out there to win.’

“And that conversation changed my whole perspective of how I approached that match, because I was definitely going out there to see if I can just get a few games and not be blown out.

“You have the belief that you can win. But I feel like there’s a difference of belief and then also knowing. I had belief, but I was like I don’t know if I could do it, especially Venus at Wimbledon, she’s the queen of that surface.

“At the time I definitely knew grass… it still isn’t… but I definitely knew grass wasn’t the best surface for me.

“But yeah I just remember not looking at the scoreboard because I didn’t want to see Venus Williams’ name.

“I didn’t want to look at her. So I was just trying to treat it as me playing the qualifying matches that I did the week prior.”

How Coco Gauff defied a common trend among American players

Gauff’s run at Wimbledon actually began in the qualifying rounds, where she won all three matches to earn her spot in the main draw before beating Williams.

She then continued her impressive form, defeating Magdalena Rybarikova and Polona Hercog before eventually falling to Simona Halep in the round of 16.

That remains her deepest run at Wimbledon, but she has since found more success at both the US Open and French Open.