Brad Gilbert is one of the most respected names in professional tennis, having coached top Americans, mainly Andre Agassi and Coco Gauff. He is known for his proven success and remains active in the tennis world, appearing on major podcasts. Recently, the coach opened up on how different it was to work with the legend Agassi compared to a new player, Gauff.
Brad Gilbert Compares Coaching Andre Agassi and Coco Gauff
During the 1990s, Gilbert made his name as a professional player, reaching a career-high ranking of World No. 4 thanks to his 20 ATP titles. After challenging legends such as Boris Becker, Jim Courier, John McEnroe, and others, the American decided to pass on his knowledge to rising stars, becoming a coach after his retirement.
The American legend Agassi is, to date, the most successful player to work with Gilbert, winning six of his eight Grand Slam titles under his tutelage. The 64-year-old then worked with major names such as Andy Murray and Andy Roddick before partnering with American sensation Gauff.
During his recent appearance on the Tennis Channel, the legendary coach opened up about how different it was working with a player like Agassi compared to a recent star, Gauff. He said:
“When I was coaching Andre Agassi, before really analytics, even if he played a guy 15 times, he’d always want to know if I noticed something different this week that the player maybe was doing differently.”
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This showed that the American legend trusted Gilbert’s analysis and was always eager to learn even the smallest details he had noticed. “He was trying something different. And have you noticed that good players can make more adjustments than other players,” he added.
Comparing this with his time with Gauff, Gilbert said, “They use three different services and then I would get like 300 pages and I felt like it was like a bit of an OD and then I would say ‘You know what? There’s all these pages they’re going to just hit the ball to her forehand.'”
The coach humorously stated that Gauff’s team overwhelmed him with their analytics, calling it an “overdo” and putting training over such assessments. Solidifying his thoughts, he added, “Doesn’t matter what they’ve said because that’s the human element that players know, until you can break a pattern that you can do well against, they will go to that.”
Gilbert stressed that it is important to see how your opponent is changing their game and adapt during the match, rather than doing pre-match analysis, which wouldn’t work if the opponent changes their playstyle again.
This shows just how much the game has changed from the likes of Agassi and Pete Sampras to the modern era of Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka. As more technologies are integrated into the game, players leverage them to gain an upper hand wherever possible.
Agassi’s method worked perfectly for him as he completed a Career Grand Slam, lifting eight major trophies, while Gauff’s “over” calculations, as Gilbert stated, have been working for her so far, as she has managed to lift two major titles at the age of just 22. She recently reached the final of her home tournament, the WTA 1000 Miami Open, but lost to the dominant world No. 1 Sabalenka in three sets.
It would be interesting to see how Gauff perfects her game and reaches the absolute pinnacle of women’s tennis, consistently dominating major tournaments and Grand Slams, given her immense potential.
