If you are something more than a casual tennis fan, you probably saw the WTA Tour players’ arresting vacation photos from a month ago on social media. Caroline Garcia made the brave voyage to brisk Antarctica, but there were a startling number of shots from Maldives, a string of hypnotic islands bobbing in the Indian Ocean.

The top players usually take a few weeks to decompress before jumping into training blocks that will serve as the foundation of the coming season. Coco Gauff took in the two-day Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival in Los Angeles, Tyler The Creator’s music festival featuring, among many others, AG Club, Fana Hues, Teezo Touchdown and SZA.

What, no Maldives?

“No, no,” her coach Brad Gilbert said laughing. “We actually were practicing.”

Ten days after her semifinal loss in the WTA Finals in Cancun, Gauff was already practicing in the heat of South Florida. The 19-year-old US Open champion has assembled a formidable team that includes Jarmere Jenkins, who has been running those daily sessions, physio Maria Vago, and Stephane Dal Soglio, the strength and conditioning coach.

Gauff will start out her season in Auckland, New Zealand on Tuesday after noon (Monday night, ET) against fellow American Claire Liu. Gilbert will arrive Down Under the week before the Australian Open begins. He’ll be multitasking as usual, coaching Gauff and providing analysis for ESPN.

Even in the days before he began coaching her, Gilbert was impressed.

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“When you’re watching a player, and you don’t have a vested interest, you can just look at it in an unbiased way,” he said. “I would say probably the most unbelievable thing at a young age was just her maturity -- and her movement. Those stood out.”

Gilbert, who previously had great success coaching Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Andy Murray, is excited to see what comes next after Gauff’s career-best season.

He ought to be. Gauff is the No.3-ranked player among Hologic WTA Tour players and carrying the momentum of winning the last major of 2023. She turns 20 in March.

"I'm always going to put pressure on myself," Gauff said Sunday in Auckland. "I want to strive for more and I don't want to only win one." 

Problem solving on the fly

Gauff has been absurdly precocious from her earliest days on the tour, but everything came together last summer. Gauff won her first WTA 500 event, first 1000, first Grand Slam, including a stretch in which she won 24 of 28 matches.

What was it that clicked?

“The ability to find a way,” Gilbert said without hesitation. “Find a way when you don’t have your best stuff. In Washington, we had one of those rare weeks where you just bomb through the field, and there wasn’t a close set. Even in Cincy, she had only one close match, and that was against [Iga] Swiatek. All the rest of the matches were blowouts.”

But the US Open, from the beginning, provided myriad challenges, starting with her first-round match against Laura Siegemund. Gauff lost the first set, then rallied to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-4. She came back from a set down against Elise Mertens in the third round, and her fourth-round win over Caroline Wozniacki also went the distance. Aryna Sabalenka took the first set of the final, but Gauff emerged as the 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 winner.

“She had to figure her way out of four different matches,” Gilbert said. “As I look back on it, it so reminds me of a tournament that was really special, the ’99 French. Andre had to wrangle his way through five difficult matches.

“Coco, three different times she found herself a set down, once down a break in the third. So she had to problem-solve. And those are the best kind of wins, where you grow the most, winning those types of matches.”

Gilbert, who was working with Pere Riba at the time, made some quick adjustments. He dropped Gauff back about eight feet when returning serve to give her a better look at some of the speedier offerings. He also encouraged her to attack earlier and more often. Previously, Gauff relied more on her relentless defense, waiting for opponents to make a mistake.

“It’s the balance of both [offense and defense],” Gilbert said. “Obviously, you want to win with more offense. It’s not as taxing. You have to be willing to do both. Maybe the greatest I’ve seen at both is [Novak] Djokovic. His ability to lock down on the court -- he can at any moment. But then he also has this unbelievable ball-control offense.

“With Coco, that’s what we’re working toward. Keep improving, trying to get better.”

Looking forward

Gilbert, historically, never looks too far ahead. He likes to make decisions based on the most current information. When asked to predict the winner of an imminent Grand Slam as an ESPN analyst, he usually deferred until the draw was released.

Likewise, with Gauff, he will not look ahead too far.

“We just worked hard in the offseason, now let’s get ready for Australia,” Gilbert said. “With Coco last year, it wasn’t like we were starting in the offseason. It was very similar with Roddick -- bang, you’re right in the mix of tournaments. You’re just trying to help them at that point with some things to help their match play.”

One bit of news to report: There will be no radical adjustment to Gauff’s extreme-grip forehand.

“Extremely difficult,” Gilbert said. “If you alter the grip, you have to alter the swing. So this takes a long time. We’re not going to do that -- not right now. There’s small things we can do. … We’re working on improving her serve, her backhand -- everything.”

Riba, who left the team last year to attend to some personal matters, will not be back this year. He’s been reunited with Zheng Qinwen, after her coach, Wim Fissette, went back to working with Naomi Osaka.

How many weeks will he give her in the coaching box?

“We’re going to try and figure that out,” Gilbert said. “Obviously, I’m going to do more than I thought. You know what I think about most right now? Making progress. Especially when you’re young, it’s great what you’ve achieved, but it starts over again next year.

“If you asked [Gauff] at the start of 2023, her expectations were high. She sets a high standard, and she’s driven to get better. She’s never satisfied. She wants to achieve things -- that’s all she’s thinking about.”