Tommy Paul’s girlfriend, Paige Lorenze, was among those to show support for Coco Gauff on her latest branded Instagram post after John McEnroe questioned whether the American was becoming distracted by her numerous commercial deals.
A sequence of underwhelming performances saw Grand Slam champion Gauff fail to make it into the later rounds of Wimbledon, the Canadian Open, the Cincinnati Masters and the US Open since early July.
And former world No.1 McEnroe gave his take after watching the 20-year-old crash out while defending her title at Flushing Meadows. “I don’t know what has happened,” he said.
“She is still having issues with her serve, she is still having issues with her forehand. I’ve noticed she has been on a lot of commercials as well, so (her team) have got to balance that with giving her time to work on her game and feel super confident again. You can tell she’s not feeling that right now.”
Gauff has built up a formidable net worth of around £9.1million in her six years as a professional tennis player, thanks in no small part to her broad range of sponsorship deals.
One such deal popped up on her social media page earlier this week as Gauff posed in American Eagle clothing and wrote: “Just dropping some Fall inspo for your feed. New AE styles out now, plus some items from my collab still available on ae.com! #aepartner.”
One person unconcerned by her sponsorship commitments is Lorenze. The influencer with over 700,000 Instagram followers sent a message to Gauff by commenting a series of ‘heart eyes’ emojis on the post.
Lorenze – partner of men’s world No.13 Tommy Paul – has become a well-known figure in tennis and she caused a stir earlier this year by muscling in on Paul’s victory photoshoot following his impressive win at Queen’s.
Sponsorship commitments aside, Gauff gave her own explanation for the poor results she racked up during the North American hard-court swing after her US Open defeat to Emma Navarro.
“I’ve been out on big courts before, where I just felt totally overwhelmed and almost like it’s an out-of-body experience,” she said. “But I didn’t feel like that today. I felt comfortable from the time I stepped out onto the court, which I was a little bit surprised about.
“I kind of had prepared myself for the worst, just in terms of feeling overwhelmed and nervous. I expect better, but at the end of the day it happened and I know I can turn it around.”
Content Source: www.express.co.uk