Wimbledon 2019: Coco Gauff is not the new Venus Williams – she’s made a whole new category

For one so young she has a remarkably mature game, says our Wimbledon columnist Nick Bollettieri

Holy smoke. I’ve seen some talented teenagers in my time, but you would be hard pressed to find any 15-year-old as mature as Coco Gauff. Her 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 win over Polona Hercog on Centre Court on Friday night was a stunning performance. When you can play pressure points like she did, you feel sure that she has a great future ahead of her.

Over the last few days I’ve heard a lot of people comparing Gauff to a young Venus Williams, but if there are any similarities they are very superficial. In terms of their tennis they are very different. I would put Coco in a category all of her own.

When Venus was Coco’s age I had already known her for five years. Richard Williams first brought Serena and Venus to work with me at the IMG Academy in Florida when they were nine and 10 years old.

At 15 Venus was already very elegant. From an early age she was a graceful player to watch. Coco is more of a fighter – a scrapper who will fight for every point. Man, what a competitor Coco is and what composure she showed in saving two match points in the second set against Hercog.

For one so young she has a remarkably mature game. She has a much stronger forehand grip than Venus had, which means she can smack the ball hard or she can put lots of spin on it. She’s athletic, she moves well, she can volley cleanly, she has good reflexes and she hits a very effective slice.

Her serve is pretty good in terms of her motion and technique and she puts plenty of pop on the ball. As she matures physically she can only get better. In a couple of years’ time, when she has a little bit more upper body strength and stronger legs, her serve will be even more potent than it is now.

Of course there’s plenty of room for improvement in all aspects of her game. For example I think she could do more on her opponents’ second serves.

I think one of the keys to her future will be how her entourage handles all the hype around her. She is going to be in huge demand with media and sponsors, but I think it’s important to keep her away from the glare of publicity. Everyone should remember that she is still only 15 years old and her body is still growing. Be careful with her.

Novak Djokovic dropped a set in beating Hubert Hurkacz but I can’t imagine he was too concerned about that. For the most part he looked comfortable. He’s so tough to beat because he just doesn’t have any weaknesses. He serves well, he can come to the net, he has a good slice. Hell, this guy has everything – and you can’t say that about many players.

Novak Djokovic celebrates after coming through his third round match at Wimbledon (Getty)

Saturday’s match of the day: Johanna Konta has won all three of her meetings with Sloane Stephens this year, but I’m sure she will be taking nothing for granted when they meet on No 1 Court. I see it very much as a 50-50 match.

Konta will be full of confidence. She’s been playing well in the last couple of months. I think she’ll need to be positive against Stephens. When she has to go for a winner she must not hold back.

Stephens hasn’t been in the best of form of late, but she’s s top-class player. I think the key for her will be to control play as much as she can and not let Konta dictate.

Ask Nick: If you have a question for me – whether it’s about how to improve your game, training techniques or anything else concerning this great sport of ours – just email me at QuestionsforNickB@gmail.com.

Richie has written to ask me about strings. He says he’s a decent amateur player who hits the ball with plenty of power and top spin. He says his problem is that his strings regularly break. He asks if can recommend which strings he should use.

The reason for the broken strings will be the spin that he plays with rather than the power. When you hit the ball with a lot of spin that puts a lot of friction on the strings. Forgive me for passing the buck on this, Richie, but I think you’ll do best to talk to a good stringer. Explain the way you play and the stringer will be able to advise you on what strings are the most suitable.

The one other piece of advice I would give is to try to go into matches with at least two or three spare rackets in your bag. One spare racket will be enough for most amateur players, but if you’re playing with a lot of spin I would advise going in with more.

My A-Z of the IMG- looking back over my life at the IMG Academy in Florida which I founded in 1978. “I” just has to be for IMG, who bought the academy from me in 1987 and have done a wonderful job there ever since.

Why did I sell? To be blunt I didn’t have much option. Although we were producing plenty of great tennis players we were losing money because I just didn’t have the business expertise to make the academy work.

J is for Jim Courier, who was at the academy for four years. Jim, with a little assistance from myself, helped to change the way a lot of modern players approach the game.

Jim had a good if unconventional backhand, but his big strength was his forehand, which he struck with an extreme western grip. Jim’s mother wanted me to change his backhand, but I told him that he would do better to forget his backhand and just try to hit forehands as often as possible.

I got Jim to run around his backhand at every opportunity so that he could hit those big forehands. It was a strategy that you never used to see, but that’s exactly the way that the likes of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal play today.

For more information on the IMG Academy’s tennis programmes email info@imgacademy.com or call +1-800-872-6425