Coco Gauff boosts her coaching team as she rehires former mentor

Coco Gauff has added another coach to her set-up as Jean-Christophe Faurel has rejoined the reigning US Open winner’s team.

Frenchman Faurel – who was part of the American’s coaching team when she made her breakthrough in 2019 – will work alongside Brad Gilbert.

According to L’Équipe, “Faurel responded positively to Coco Gauff’s request to join her staff alongside Brad Gilbert”.
It will be the 43-year-old’s second stint as a member of Gauff coaching set-up with his first spell lasting from March 2019 to December 2020.

The American announced her arrival in top-level tennis during that period as she became the youngest qualifier at Wimbledon in June 2019 when she reached the main draw at 15 years and three months. She went on to reach the fourth round at the grass-court Grand Slam, beating the great Venus Williams in the first round.

Faurel was also part of the team when Gauff won her maiden WTA Tour singles title later in 2019 as she lifted the Upper Austria Linz trophy in October.

But they went their separate ways in December 2020 as Gauff opted to go with her father as her main coach while Faurel went on to work with ATP player Alexandre Müller as well as rising WTA star Mirra Andreeva.

In February this year, Faurel told Olympics.com: “When I saw Coco Gauff at 10, I knew she was going to be an outstanding athlete.

“She’s clearly the fastest and most explosive player on the circuit by a long way. She’s a real competitive player, she’s a winning player.

“At fifteen, she beat Venus at Wimbledon. At sixteen, she beat Naomi Osaka, world number one in Australia. She has this winning instinct, which is a huge quality.”

Faurel – who reached a career-high of No 140 in the ATP Rankings before retiring in 2009 – is now back on the team as he joins Gilbert, who himself is still fairly new to the set-up.

Former world No 4 Gilbert, who coached the likes of Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick in the past, only started working with the American in July 2023, but they have already had a lot of on-court success.

Following their link-up, Gauff won her maiden WTA 500 title at the Washington Open, followed it up with her first WTA 1000 trophy at the Cincinnati Open and then won her maiden Grand Slam at the US Open – all the space of a couple of months in 2023.

Gauff rose to a career-high No 3 in the WTA Rankings and in January this year she also added Colombian player Felipe Ramirez to her team.

The 20-year-old is yet to make an official announcement on Faurel’s addition and reveal whether or not Ramirez is a long-term appointment.

Ramirez told Latin American publication RedMas earlier this year: “I’m the one who’s on a day-to-day basis with Coco; I have to be aware of the practices, her schedules, be aware of the rackets, the balls, that the court is in perfect condition… so that when she arrives to train everything is 100 percent.

He added: “This is a team. I am not the coach that Coco has; there are very important people [Gilbert] who are directly related to this work.”