49 Fun Facts About Coco Gauff

What is Coco Gauff's given first name?

Cori is her given name, after her father Corey, and it was the name the newspapers used when she broke through at 15. Coco is the nickname that stuck.

In which Florida city did Gauff grow up and learn her tennis?

Delray Beach was her parents' home town. She took up tennis at six, and a year later the family moved back from Atlanta so that she could train properly.

Gauff's father Corey played which sport in college?

Basketball made Corey a college point guard, and her mother ran track at Florida State. Tennis still became the family business, with him as her coach.

At age 10 Gauff began training at the academy of which famous coach?

Patrick Mouratoglou's Champ'Seed foundation, set up for gifted juniors who could not afford top-level coaching, helped pay for her trips to his academy near Nice.

Aged 12, Gauff told an interviewer she wanted to be what?

The greatest of all time was still her stated aim after her breakthrough at 15. Her father, she said, had told her at eight that she could do it.

Gauff, 13, lost the 2017 US Open girls' final to which fellow American?

Amanda Anisimova, then 16, won 6-0, 6-2 over the youngest girls' finalist the event had seen. Gauff won their first meeting as professionals four years later.

Gauff won the 2018 French Open girls' title by beating which player, later her doubles partner?

Caty McNally took the first set 6-1 before Gauff won in a final-set tiebreak. A year later the two friends were winning WTA doubles titles together.

How did Gauff, ranked outside the top 300, enter 2019 Wimbledon qualifying?

A wild card from the organisers got her in. The night before her last qualifying match she sat a science test for school, then won 6-1, 6-1.

Which five-time Wimbledon champion did Gauff beat in her 2019 main-draw debut?

Venus Williams, 39, was the oldest woman in the draw and Gauff the youngest. At the net the 15-year-old thanked her idol for everything she had done for the sport.

Who ended Gauff's 2019 Wimbledon run in the fourth round?

Simona Halep won 6-3, 6-3 and went on to take the title. Gauff had won six matches in a row to get that far, three of them in qualifying.

Gauff's first WTA singles title came in 2019 at which Austrian event she entered as a lucky loser?

Linz Open qualifying beat her, but she got in as a lucky loser when another player withdrew. Her father told her she couldn't lose twice in the same tournament, and at 15 she won the title.

At 14, Gauff signed with Team8, the management agency co-founded by which tennis great?

Roger Federer set up Team8 with his agent Tony Godsick. Gauff stayed until April 2025, when she left to launch her own management firm, Coco Gauff Enterprises.

Which defending champion did Gauff upset in the third round of the 2020 Australian Open?

Naomi Osaka had beaten her at the US Open five months earlier, then asked the tearful 15-year-old to share the winner's on-court interview. In Melbourne Gauff won 6-3, 6-4.

Why did Gauff withdraw from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021?

She tested positive for COVID-19 shortly before the Games and missed her Olympic debut at 17. Three years later Team USA's athletes voted her a flag bearer in Paris.

Gauff's Parma 2021 singles-and-doubles sweep was the youngest since which player in 2004?

Maria Sharapova did it at 17 in Birmingham, 92 days after Gauff was born. Gauff, also 17, won her Parma singles final and then the doubles final on the same day.

Who beat Gauff in the 2022 French Open final, her first major final?

Iga Świątek won 6-1, 6-3 for her 35th victory in a row. Gauff, 18, was the youngest finalist in Paris since 2001, and three years later she came back and won the title.

With which partner did Gauff first reach the doubles No. 1 ranking in 2022?

Jessica Pegula and Gauff won the Toronto final in a match tiebreak, their second big title of 2022. It made Gauff, 18, the doubles No. 1, and only Martina Hingis had got there younger.

What halted Gauff's 2023 US Open semifinal for about 50 minutes?

A climate protest stopped play when a man glued his bare feet to the stadium floor. Gauff said afterwards she could not get upset with protesters who made their point peacefully.

Gauff's first WTA 1000 title came weeks before her first major, at which 2023 event?

Cincinnati brought her first win over the world No. 1, in the semifinal, after seven straight defeats by the same player. A day later she won the biggest title of her career so far.

Which coach, known for working with Andre Agassi, guided Gauff from July 2023 to September 2024?

Brad Gilbert joined as co-coach after her first-round Wimbledon exit in 2023. By mid-September she had won three titles, the last of them her first major.

Gauff won the 2024 French Open doubles title alongside which Czech player?

Kateřina Siniaková went looking for a partner two days before the tournament, and Gauff, who had not planned to play doubles, said yes. They won the title in their first event as a team.

Gauff carried the US flag at the Paris 2024 opening ceremony alongside which athlete?

LeBron James and Gauff were voted in by their fellow Team USA athletes. At 20 she became the youngest American ever to carry the flag at an opening ceremony.

Whom did Gauff beat in the final to win the 2024 WTA Finals in Riyadh?

Zheng Qinwen served for the title at 5-4 in the third set, but Gauff broke back and won the deciding tiebreak after three hours.

Gauff's 2025 French Open title was the first there by an American since whom?

Serena Williams won her third Paris title in 2015. Gauff, the beaten finalist there three years earlier, ended the ten-year wait by beating the world No. 1 on a gusty afternoon.

In 2025 Gauff became the youngest woman to reach which three clay finals in one year?

Madrid, Rome, Paris: she lost the first two finals in straight sets, then won the third and biggest of them a few weeks later.

How did Gauff win every match at Wuhan in 2025?

In straight sets every time, final included. She told her beaten friend, the week's 'three-set queen', that she had been determined not to let it reach a third set.

Which racket brand did Gauff play with when she won the 2023 US Open?

Head signed her to a long-term deal at the end of 2018, when she was 14 and had not yet played a tour-level match. Five years later the bet paid off in New York.

Gauff's first sponsorship contract, signed in October 2018, was with which brand?

New Balance built a 'Call Me Coco' campaign around her after Wimbledon in 2019. When she won the 2023 US Open it brought the line back as 'Call Me Champion'.

Which Italian pasta maker signed Gauff to a sponsorship deal in 2019?

Barilla announced the deal on the day she made her tour debut in Miami, a week after her 15th birthday and before she had won a single WTA match.

The coordinates printed on Gauff's first signature shoe point to what?

Her childhood park courts are marked on one shoe of her first signature pair. The other carries her father's line: You can change the world with your racket.

After winning her 2023 US Open semifinal, what did Gauff say she would watch that night to wind down?

Anime, she told reporters, rather than the night match that would decide her opponent in the final. She won that final two days later for her first major title.

Which Atlanta-born actress joined Gauff in 2023 to fund a new playground and tennis courts at a city park?

Storm Reid and Gauff broke ground at Brownwood Park that July, and Gauff worked with a local arts group on a signature painted design for its tennis courts.

At 15, Gauff said she and her father had prayed before every match since she was eight for what?

That both players stay safe, she said after her first Wimbledon win, adding that they don't really pray about victory. After her first major title she said she asks only for the strength to give her all.

Gauff's parents gave up their careers to follow which tennis father's example?

Richard Williams, who coached his own daughters to the top, was the model. Corey Gauff left a health-care job to coach her and Candi, an educator, homeschooled her.

After winning the 2023 US Open, Gauff told which group they had been 'adding gas' to her fire?

The people who doubted her had said her titles that summer were as big as it would get. She admitted reading their comments right up until the final.

Gauff's first US Open quarterfinal, in 2022, made her the youngest American woman there since which 17-year-old's 2009 run?

Melanie Oudin was 17 when she got that far in 2009. Gauff, 18 and the youngest player left in the draw, trailed in both sets before beating the oldest, 33-year-old Zhang Shuai, 7-5, 7-5.

Which former No. 1, back after more than three years in retirement, did Gauff beat at the 2023 US Open?

Caroline Wozniacki, who had retired in 2020, led by a break in the final set. Gauff told her coaching team to stop talking to her, then won the set 6-1.

After losing her 2026 Australian Open quarterfinal, Gauff was filmed doing what in a spot she thought was private?

Smashing her racket on a concrete ramp, after a defeat that lasted just 59 minutes. She said she had looked for a place without cameras, and would rather break a racket than lash out at her team.

Which country beat the US in the 2026 United Cup semifinals despite a Gauff win?

Poland avenged its defeat in the 2025 final: Gauff won her singles but then lost the deciding mixed doubles alongside Christian Harrison.

Which player advanced when Gauff retired with an arm injury at Indian Wells in 2026?

Alexandra Eala led 6-2, 2-0 when Gauff stopped with an arm problem. Only weeks earlier in Dubai, Gauff had won their first meeting 6-0, 6-2.

Which Czech beat Gauff on a final-set tiebreak in her first Wimbledon semifinal, in 2026?

Karolína Muchová saved a match point before winning. Gauff had arrived without a grass-court win in two years, and the run made her a semifinalist at all four majors.

Who upset defending champion Gauff in the third round of the 2026 French Open?

Anastasia Potapova, the 28th seed, lost the first set and then won the next two. Born in Russia, she had started representing Austria only that season.

Who beat Gauff in the 2026 US Open semifinals?

Elena Rybakina lost the first set, then won the next two 6-4, 6-4. Her quarterfinal win had already guaranteed her the top ranking, and two days later she took the title as well.

Gavin MacMillan, the serve specialist Gauff hired in August 2025, had earlier rebuilt which player's serve?

Aryna Sabalenka's serve had broken down before he rebuilt it, and she went on to reach world No. 1. Gauff called him in the week before the 2025 US Open, after 16 double faults in one quarterfinal defeat.

Which surface does Gauff call her favourite?

Hard court is the favourite she names in her tour biography, and it brought her first major title in New York. Yet grass gave her her breakthrough at 15, and clay her first major final.

Which Slovenian held two match points against Gauff in the third round of Wimbledon 2019 before losing?

Polona Hercog led by a set and 5-2, then double-faulted on her second match point. Gauff, 15 and playing on Centre Court, fought back to win in three sets.

What left Gauff in tears during her third-round defeat at the Paris 2024 Olympics?

A dispute with the umpire began when he ruled her opponent's shot in after a line judge had called it out, costing her a key point. The second seed argued in tears for several minutes and lost the match.

Which player did Gauff beat in the 2023 Washington final, a month after a first-round exit at Wimbledon?

Maria Sakkari lost 6-2, 6-3 in the first tournament Gauff entered after Wimbledon. At the trophy ceremony Gauff told her team how tough that defeat had been, and how glad she was to bounce back.

In 2021 Gauff became the youngest major quarter-finalist since 2006 by beating whom in Paris?

Ons Jabeur, like Gauff a former junior champion at Roland Garros, lost 6-3, 6-1 in just 53 minutes. Gauff, 17, had fallen in the fourth round of a major twice before.