Coach Patrick Mouratoglou’s main focus is on Serena Williams. But he can’t help but keep tabs on Coco Gauff.
Mouratoglou met Gauff when she was 10 years old. The family decided to have Gauff, from Delray Beach, Fla., train intermittently at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in the south of France, near Nice.
That the Gauff camp was interested in flying Coco to France to hone her craft speaks volumes to Mouratoglou’s stature. The coach, who also does analyst work for ESPN, set up a game plan for Coco that has proved successful.
Coming off her run to the fourth round at Wimbledon, upsetting Venus Williams along the way, Gauff will make her U.S. Open debut Tuesday against 77th-ranked Anastasia Potapova. It will be the third match on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
The American is ranked 139th and received a controversial wild card into the main draw here from the USTA despite it exceeding her limit of three wild cards set for 15-year-olds.
“I saw a future champion,” Mouratoglou told The Post in a players’ lounge interview Sunday. “Everything I believed was necessary to become a champion, I can see at that age already. If I point out the most important things, saw athleticism, the drive, self-confidence — but not cocky — just a belief in herself. Hard worker. Super competitor. You see her in practice, then she goes into the match, it’s a different level. She knows how to win.”
With a full-time commitment to Serena, Mouratoglou cannot be Coco’s coach. Perhaps after Serena retires.
The current job belongs to Coco’s father, Corey. Mouratoglou arranged for a secondary coach in fellow Frenchman Jean-Christophe Faurel, from his academy. Coco’s mother, Candi, is a former Florida State hurdler and got her daughter into tennis in the second grade.
“We provided a good environment,” Mouratoglou said. “She has a great family who have a big role. She looks up to her father the most. They had other needs. They needed a fitness plan, hitting partners and establishing a long-term plan.”
And now Gauff is fulfilling her potential — earlier than expected, even though she became the youngest U.S. Open junior finalist in 2017 at age 13. At Wimbledon, she became the youngest qualifier in history and youngest player to make the fourth round since Jennifer Capriati in 1991.
“Yes and no,” Mouratoglou said when asked if he was surprised. “Yes, you can’t expect something like that at that age. On the other hand, she made history many times with her young age.’’
Gauff has tried to avoid the spotlight in the buildup to the Open, declining to go to media day. She stopped in on Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day on Saturday and belted balls into the stands.
“She continues to deal well with pressure and that’s something very rare,’’ Mouratoglou said. “It’s one more quality you can’t see when she’s 10 but you started to see it at 12, 13.”