Former six-time Grand Slam doubles champion Rennae Stubbs thinks there are reasons for Coco Gauff to be "super disappointed" with her 2025 but also to be satisfied in some ways, while also acknowledging that the American is far away from reaching the heights of Serena Williams.
Gauff, who celebrated her 21st birthday in March, became a Grand Slam champion at the 2023 US Open before lifting her second Major title at this year's French Open. On paper, having two Grand Slams at 21 is an outstanding thing.
However, Gauff is still 21 Grand Slam triumphs away from equaling Williams' 23 Slams, and five away from leveling Venus' Major wins. To put it in retrospect, Serena was 18 when she won her first Grand Slam title at the 1999 US Open and concluded the 2002 season as a four-time Slam winner. Venus was 20 when she won her first two Majors in 2000, and she collected two more wins on the biggest stage the following year.
Outside of this year's French Open, Gauff didn't enjoy much success at the Grand Slam level, having lost in the Australian Open quarterfinal, losing in the Wimbledon first round, and exiting the US Open in the round-of-16.
Stubbs, who worked with Serena during the American's 2022 US Open farewell, assessed Gauff's year on the latest episode of her podcast.
Stubbs: Gauff already having two Slams is unbelievable, but you have to win a lot more to get close to Williams
Shell be super disappointed in a lot of ways, but then the other side of me is like, no the reason that flipped in my mind is when you said its because Coco said she wants to win the most Grand Slams. Shes put it out there that she wants to be one of the greatest of all time. Thats her words, not mine," Stubbs said on her podcast.
She has consistently sort of put it out there and not been afraid to say that she wants to be as great as Venus or Serena. And Im like, okay, well, they won a lot of major titles when they were 18, 19, 20. They were racking at that point at your age, and youve got two unbelievable, at your age to do what youve done. So if you want to get to 20, you gotta win two for 10 years, or youre gonna win a lot in a short period of time, depending on how long you want to play for. So I think in some respects thats disappointing because she wants to rack them up.
Stubbs then went on to bring up Gauff's comments about changing her perspective, not allowing anymore wins or losses to define her, and just overall having a more balanced and healthier approach to things.
So in that respect, she would look at this year as a success right and be like, Im doing great, Im making a lot of money, I won another major title," Stubbs said.
