Grand Slam Coco's 'brutal' training regime

Coco Gauff’s God-given tennis talents produced her most successful season last year.

But the US star has been back in training for weeks for the new season – starting at the Australian Open on January 14 – with what commentators have described as one of the most brutal pre-season regimes they’ve ever seen.

The 19-year-old won her first major at the US Open in September, but she’s building on that with special Vo2 max training so that she’s even better in 2024.

Gauff took to Instagram as far back as November to post a photo of herself wearing an oxygen mask while on a treadmill, with the caption: “preseason day 1. we back.”

It’s a case of building on what God has already given her.

Gauff prays before every match, and after winning the US Open she got on her knees to thank God for Grand Slam glory.

She had just beaten Aryna Sabalenka in three sets, and she knew who to thank – prostrating herself at her court seat as the world’s TV cameras rolled.

“Before every match since I was 8, my dad and I say a prayer together,” she told the New York Times. “We don’t really pray about victory, just that me and my opponent stay safe. After the match, I was just thanking God for this opportunity.”

Gauff came from a set down to defeat world number two Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 at Flushing Meadows, Queens, when it would have been easy to fear the worst after that first set.

She’d already lost one major final, at the French Open the previous year, when a straight-sets demolition by Poland’s Iga Świątek could have destroyed her confidence.

Instead, the setback proved pivotal.

THIS ISN'T THE END OF THE STORY!

Read the whole story in the January 2024 issue of New Life Newspaper.

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