WATCH: ‘Former track athlete’ Coco Gauff names Iga Swiatek and Alycia Parks among rivals she would like to race
Coco Gauff picked her top two players who she feels could challenge her in terms of a hundred-meter flat sprint.
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(L-R) Alycia Parks, Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek (Image via: WTA)
Just after cruising her way past Jasmine Paolini in the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Open, Coco Gauff has been under the limelight once again as she faces a chance of lifting yet another title this year. She beat the Italian tennis star in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, to set up a semi-final matchup against top-seed Iga Swiatek. At the post-match conference, she was asked to comment on her picks for who could challenge her for a flat sprint of 100 meters.
A former track athlete during his childhood days, Coco was fast enough to rule out every possibility on her chances of winning a 100-meter sprint. She picked Alycia Parks and Iga Swiatek as the ones who are currently in the best shape and are the fastest players on the court in modern-day tennis. She complimented Parks on having a great stride and would love to face both of them in a sprint race.
She said, “Hundred meters? I don’t know. I’m really not that great at the hundred meters. Oh, that’s a tough question. I think Alycia Parks, she’s pretty quick, has a good stride. Iga is pretty quick, too. I think those two would give me a run. I would be curious to test it, to be honest. I do feel like I am the faster mover, to be honest. I’d be really interested.”
What did Coco Gauff have to say about participating in a 400 meters race?
Coco Gauff elaborated further on why she feels that a hundred-meter sprint is not her cup of tea and that she is a better athlete in a 400-meter sprint. Gauff was an athlete during her childhood days, and she went back in time to talk about how dominant she was when she ran on a 400-meter track. She was originally an 800-meter sprinter, and despite much advice provided by her teammates to pursue her career on a 400-meter track, she stuck to the 800.
The young prodigy said, “But I think the 400 is really my race. I did run track. I did the 800 when I ran track. I really only did it because I told the coach I couldn’t come to any of the practices because I was focused on tennis. He was, Okay, you’ll run the 800 because nobody wanted to run the 800.“
Continuing her train of thought, she further added, “I would really crush people off of beating them in the 400. Everybody said I should run 400. I was like, I’m not going to take one of my teammates’ spots, this is actually their life, and this is just something I’m doing for fun. I’ll just stick to the 800.”
In case you missed it:
- WATCH: Roger Federer dwells on missing Laver Cup as a player while backing the ‘Team World’ to retain their title this year in Vancouver
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Soumyadeep Mondal
(882 Articles Published)