{"id":96249,"date":"2025-07-27T08:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T08:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/96249\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T08:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T08:21:10","slug":"what-john-mcenroe-predicted-coco-gauff-would-achieve-in-tennis-by-the-age-of-20-which-never-came-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/96249\/","title":{"rendered":"What John McEnroe predicted Coco Gauff would achieve in tennis by the age of 20 which never came true"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Coco Gauff has been one of the biggest names on the WTA Tour since she made her breakthrough at 15 years old.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gauff was already starting to make some noise in 2019<\/a>, but really took the world by storm when she played in her first Grand Slam main draw at Wimbledon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After coming through qualifying, Gauff beat Venus Williams at Wimbledon<\/a> in her first round match.<\/p>\n

Although Gauff is now a two-time Grand Slam champion<\/a>, she did not fulfil a prediction that John McEnroe<\/a> had for her.<\/p>\n

\"CocoPhoto by Rob Newell \u2013 CameraSport via Getty ImagesWhat John McEnroe predicted would happen to Coco Gauff at Wimbledon in 2019<\/p>\n

Gauff beat five-time Wimbledon champion Williams<\/a>, 6-4 6-4, on the No.1 Court in her debut Grand Slam match.<\/p>\n

This victory provoked a huge reaction from across the world, with even McEnroe impressed by the teenager.<\/p>\n

When speaking to the BBC<\/a> at the time, McEnroe was full of praise for Gauff<\/a> and backed her to become world number one as a teenager.<\/p>\n

\u201cGauff\u2019s not only physically mature, but also mentally,\u201d said McEnroe. \u201cI look at the way she plays. If she\u2019s not number one in world by 20 I will be absolutely shocked.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Only five teenagers in history had managed to reach the summit of the WTA rankings before, with Martina Hingis the youngest at 16 years and 182 days.<\/p>\n

Another of those teenage number ones is Tracy Austin<\/a>, who also hyped up Gauff\u2019s future at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have been talking about Coco for years,\u201d said Austin. \u201cThey have now started to recognise her internationally. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously she\u2019s a tremendous athlete, but to walk on court to face Venus, a player who she idolises, there were plenty of opportunities for her to get tight and nervous. She has been raised for greatness and this is beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n\nWTA Teenager who was world number one<\/strong><\/td>\nAge when they became world number one<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMartina Hingis<\/td>\n16 years and 182 days<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMonica Seles<\/td>\n17 years and 99 days<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nTracy Austin<\/td>\n17 years and 116 days<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nSteffi Graf<\/td>\n18 years and 64 days<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nMaria Sharapova<\/td>\n18 years and 125 days<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Gauff would go on to reach the fourth round of Wimbledon that year, but McEnroe\u2019s prediction about her never came true.<\/p>\n

The American would reach a career-high as a teenager of world number three, which Gauff achieved after winning the 2023 US Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gauff, who is now 21 years old, has since bettered this, but is still yet to lead the WTA<\/a> rankings.<\/p>\n

Could Coco Gauff become world number one this year?<\/p>\n

Gauff is currently the world number two, with Aryna Sabalenka leading the WTA rankings<\/a> on a colossal 12,420 points.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka<\/a> leads Gauff by 4,751 in the rankings, but there are still some big tournaments coming up this year.<\/p>\n

This includes the final Grand Slam of 2025, where Sabalenka is the defending US Open champion<\/a> and has 2,000 ranking points to protect.<\/p>\n

Although Gauff did not perform so well at the US Open<\/a> last year, she still has a significant number of ranking points to defend from her title victories at the WTA Finals<\/a> and the China Open<\/a>.<\/p>\n\nWTA Ranking<\/strong><\/td>\nTotal Ranking points<\/strong><\/td>\nPoints defending this year<\/strong><\/td>\nRanking points earned in 2025<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n1. Aryna Sabalenka<\/td>\n12,420<\/td>\n5,025<\/td>\n7,395<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2. Coco Gauff<\/td>\n7,669<\/td>\n3,060<\/td>\n4,609<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

While Gauff is currently the person closest to catching Sabalenka, another WTA player has actually been backed to finish the year as world number one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Based off previous comments, this is not likely to affect Gauff, who claimed she would rather win majors<\/a> than become world number one.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coco Gauff has been one of the biggest names on the WTA Tour since she made her breakthrough…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":96250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[2210,15864,62,1464,67,132,68,2212],"class_list":{"0":"post-96249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-coco-gauff","9":"tag-john-mcenroe","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-wta"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114924230377055439","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}