Brad Gilbert, 62, coaching Coco Gauff, 19, and somehow it works

At first glance, there’s no way this should have worked.

Brad Gilbert, at age 62, hadn’t coached top-level talent in more than a decade. Though Gilbert had kept close to the game by working as an ESPN commentator, he had little first-hand experience working with today’s young players. Gilbert is the first to admit his social media skills are suspect and his musical taste is oh-so-very 20th Century.

So when Coco Gauff’s parents first mentioned in July that they wanted her to meet with Gilbert, a former player who had coached Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick to wins in the U.S. Open in 1994 and 2003, the 19-year-old was less than enthused.

Said Gilbert: “She thinks I’m an old dude, which is fine.”

Said Gauff: “I was worried about being with an older person, to be honest.”

Well, score one for the old dudes. Gauff is plaing in her first U.S. Open semifinal Thursday night, having won 16 of her 17 matches since Gilbert joined her team. En route to the final four match against Karolina Muchova, Gauff won the 500-point event in Washington and her first Masters 1000 in Cincinnati, with her only defeat coming to Jessica Pegula in Canada.

It’s not like Gilbert has performed magic with Gauff. Rather, he’s been the Dumbledore to Gauff’s Harry Potter, meaning that he’s basically tweaked a few things and given a few pieces of advice in order to empower Gauff to be the best she can be.

“I’ll tell you Coco’s two best qualities, she’s incredibly humble and hard-working. She wants to get better,” Gilbert told Sky Sports. “I think I’ve helped her a lot with simple strategy and in-match, understanding her opponents’ strengths and weaknesses. And when you start with somebody on the fly, that’s what you can do most.”

Gilbert, the father of three young adults, apparently learned a thing or two from parenting that has helped him coach Gauff. Rather than being overly concerned with Gauff’s weaknesses when he was hired after her…