"Coco Gauff is the best women's athlete to ever play tennis, Steffi Graf was the second greatest women's player of all time" – Mark Petchey

Mark Petchey recently made a bold statement about Coco Gauff and Steffi Graf while discussing their place among the best women’s tennis athletes in history.

Since Wimbledon 2023, Coco Gauff has won 18 matches while losing just one. The teenager clinched three of the four tournaments she contested during the North American hardcourt swing - the Citi Open, the Cincinnati Open, and the US Open.

During these campaigns, Gauff earned her first-ever victory over Iga Swiatek, who was ranked World No. 1 at the time. She also defeated the current World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the US Open final to win her first Major.

While speaking on the Inside-In podcast, commentator and former British tennis player Mark Petchey highlighted Coco Gauff’s current dominance on the women’s circuit. He opined that since the 19-year-old has finally won the highly-awaited Major title, she is likely to play even more freely and thus pose a serious threat to her competitors.

"It gonna be up to other players on the tour to kinda counter the way that she’s moving the ball around, particularly on the forehand side. I don’t know – I don’t think we’ve seen a better athlete in women’s tennis, and that’s something else that’s gonna be a problem for that lot of the players out there, and plus the pressure’s off," Petchey said.

Petchey went on to hail Gauff as the ‘best women’s athlete to ever play tennis.’ The Brit claimed that Gauff’s athletic abilities are even greater than those of 22-time Grand Slam champion Steffi Graf, whom he placed in the second position.

Petchey reasoned that women’s tennis is much more fast-paced now than it was in Graf’s era.

"I think she’s the best women’s athlete to ever play tennis. You cannot tell me, the tennis -- even when Steffi Graf was around, who I think, in my mind, was the second greatest women’s tennis player athlete of all time -- you can’t tell me that the sport was played at the same speed back then than it is now," Mark Petchey said.

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Mark Petchey on Steffi Graf and Coco Gauff: "I think Steffi was the best in her era"

Coco Gauff won her maiden Grand Slam title at the 2023 US Open

Mark Petchey further said that you cannot compare across generations due to the ever-changing game styles.

"You know, the sport moves on. And I don’t think that we should kind of always, you know, try and compare the other generation of players, because we can’t do it," he said.

Reiterating his stance on Coco Gauff, the commentator and analyst opined that Steffi Graf, who holds the women’s all-time record for the most weeks spent as the World No. 1 (377), was the best ‘in her era.’

“They were phenomenal in their era. I think Steffi Graf was the best in her era. I personally think that Coco Gauff, looking at her right now, with the speed that the games being played at, is the best female women’s tennis athlete that we have ever seen,” Petchey said.