Coco Gauff, the rising American tennis star, is drawing inspiration from Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat’s recent run to the NBA Finals as she prepares to make her charge for the 2023 French Open. Gauff managed to defeat Rebeka Masarova 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 in a tricky first-round matchup on Tuesday and gave credit to the Heat’s resilience for helping her to stay focused. The Miami team had built a 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals before the Boston Celtics made a comeback to force a Game 7. The Heat ultimately won the series on Monday night with a crushing 103-84 victory over the Celtics.
Gauff was impressed by the confidence displayed by Butler and the Heat, and she believes that this mindset can help her in her own career. She said, “Honestly, today, I told myself if Jimmy Butler didn’t freak out when they were up 3-0 and all of a sudden it’s 3-all, then I shouldn’t freak out after losing the first set.”
Although the game started at 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning in Paris, Gauff admitted that she was too anxious to sleep and checked the results as soon as she woke up. She said, “Very relieved. I kind of held my breath.”
Gauff has a personal connection with Butler, who attended her match at the Miami Open in March. The Heat star even offered her tickets to see the last home game of the regular season and then DM’d her a few weeks later to ask if she wanted more tickets to see the postseason. Gauff had already planned to travel to Madrid, Rome, and France, so she declined his offer. However, Butler remained confident that the Heat would reach the NBA Finals, and he told Gauff to let him know if her family wanted tickets for the event. Gauff said, “This is before we lost to the Hawks for the first play-in game. I just felt like I knew that–everybody is like we have a 3% chance of making the Finals, but when he sent me that, I knew we were making the Finals because he didn’t say, ‘if we make the Finals,’ he said, ‘when we make the Finals.’”
Gauff has not shared this interaction with the public until now, but she believes that Butler’s mentality can help her to stay focused and confident as she pursues her own goals. She said, “He pretty much said we were going to the Finals before [Miami] even qualified for the playoffs, and I just really like that mentality of him.”
Gauff, who is only 17 years old, has already made a name for herself in the world of tennis. She reached the fourth round of the Australian Open in 2020 and the third round of the US Open in the same year. She also won her first WTA title at the Linz Open in Austria in 2019. As she prepares for the French Open, she will undoubtedly be drawing on the confidence and resilience of athletes like Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat to help her stay focused and motivated.
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