“I felt like I didn’t ever want to use my age as an excuse for losing or why I’m not accomplishing things. I think it was putting too much pressure on myself,” she said. “Now I’m taking a step back. Not really looking at my age saying I’m young, I have time. I don’t ever want to feel too comfortable. I’m just a believer you never know what can happen in the future.”
While it took Gauff a while to change her mindset, she also thought Raducanu had already learned the same lessons in her brief time on the tour. She continued: “It’s also a balance of accepting that at your age, you’re going to make mistakes, accepting that you’re learning. I think I appreciate tonight more at 18 than when I beat Naomi at 15 or 16 here, same night session match, 7pm, prime spot on Laver.”
“Even though that was probably a bigger win for me, I appreciated tonight more because I feel like I’m not in that mindset of I’m supposed to win and I’m supposed to do this and supposed to do that. I’m more just appreciating it match by match. I think that just goes from learning. I think Emma probably feels the same way, at least what I’ve gotten from listening to her press conferences, as well.”
