When it came to sports, Coco Gauff had to choose between playing basketball and tennis. Prior to her swift ascent to fame in tennis, the youthful talent struggled to decide how best to use her extraordinary athletic ability. The young tennis prodigy made the decision to give up basketball and set out on a path that would eventually make her one of tennis’s most promising players. But it’s impossible not to wonder what might have happened if she had chosen a different path and ended up playing basketball with American sensation Caitlin Clark.

After winning the first round of the tournament in a post-match press interview, Gauff was asked about what would have happened if she had chosen basketball over tennis back in her day. Along with that, she opened up about her desire to play alongside the 22-year-old popular American basketball player.

She stated, “Yeah, it’s funny because my dad was actually talking about that. He was, like, You would have been right up there. You would have been a sophomore. I would have had you shooting Js and everything.”

Further, the 20-year-old tennis sensation revealed her ‘parallel universe’ wish. “Yeah, I don’t know if I would be that type of player, but I will say if I could go in another life I would love to play at the same time as Caitlin Clark just to see if I could guard her,” she added.

In addition, the Grand Slam champion also highlighted how her father was also a basketball player back in time and always talked about how it would have been great if she would have taken that path. But even today, her father is quite supportive when it comes to her tennis career.

While she was not quite sure whether she would be a true basketball player just the way her father wanted, she would have at least supported Clark on the field. However, Gauff was quite interested in tennis to follow basketball in male vs. female competition.

When Gauff wanted tennis to follow a bit of basketball

The US Open champion made a bold suggestion regarding how tennis could take on a structure akin to basketball, with men and women competing against one another in certain events. Gauff imagined serve-target battles between Australian Nick Kyrgios and Serena Williams. Inspired by the exciting forms found in basketball tournaments, Gauff commented on prospective skills challenges that could bring interest to tennis matches during a press conference in Dubai, where she was competing in a WTA tournament.

She stated, “There’s also like the dropshot one. Ons (Jabeur) and Carlos (Alcaraz) would be a cool matchup against that. There could be maybe a consistency challenge.” The 19-year-old American remarked how excited she was about the prospect of watching tennis greats like Nick Kyrgios and Serena Williams compete in a serve-targets match.

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