Teenage tennis phenom Coco Gauff proving to be a rising star on and off the court
The official WTA bio for Coco Gauff includes some of your normal teenage traits.
Gauff, it reads, enjoys hanging out with her family, watching superhero movies and making Tik Tok videos. “Doesn’t have any pets,” the bio continues, “but has been trying to convince her mom to get a dog.”
Typical 16-year-old stuff, right?
Well, Gauff is far from typical, as the past several months have clearly shown.
Her future looks even brighter.
Gauff came to central Kentucky this week to play in the Top Seed Open, the first WTA event in the United States since the COVID-19 shutdown, and she’s already well on her way to becoming one of the sport’s biggest stars.
Last summer — just a few months after turning 15 years old — Gauff upset tennis legend Venus Williams in the first round at Wimbledon, becoming the youngest player to win a singles match at the grand slam event since Jennifer Capriati in 1991. She advanced all the way to the round of 16 in that major.
A few months after that, she won the Linz Open in Austria, becoming the youngest player to win a WTA singles title in 15 years. And earlier this year, still a few weeks shy of her 16th birthday, Gauff advanced to the round of 16 in the Australian Open — the only major played in 2020 to date — defeating No. 3 seed Naomi Osaka in the process.
She turned 16 right around the time the sports world shut down. (Her birthday was actually two days after the Jazz-Thunder NBA game that marked the domino effect of cancellations across American sports).
Gauff, like just about every other athlete, was relegated to the bench for the next several months. It wasn’t all bad.
“Obviously I miss competing and I miss playing, but I think it was a good little break for me, because I was able to train,” she said this week. “I still consider myself in the development stage. So having those months off to work on certain stuff definitely helped me. Plus I got to be home and be with my brothers and my family — that was probably the longest I’ve been home in a long time. But I’m excited to get back competing. I definitely miss being on the court.”
The Top Seed Open in Nicholasville marks Gauff’s return to competitive tennis and a tuneup for the U.S. Open later this month. Her latest big upset came Wednesday afternoon, when she defeated No. 2-seeded Aryna Sabalenka — the No. 11 player in the world rankings — 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
It was the third victory over a top 15 player in her young career and will push her into the top 50 of the WTA singles rankings.
Gauff — positioned at No. 53 in those rankings coming into the week — is still in the learning process. She’s also finding out more about herself off the court. The past few months provided more evidence of that.
On May 28 — three days after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police — Gauff tweeted: “I promise to always use my platform to help make the world a better place.”
She’s followed through on that pledge, helping to raise awareness on social justice issues for her social media followers that number in the hundreds of thousands, as well as her fellow players on tour.
Gauff speaks out
About a week after that May 28 tweet, Gauff was put in a position she wasn’t necessarily expecting.
While attending a peaceful protest in her hometown of Delray Beach, Fla., the 16-year-old was asked to speak before the crowd. She said this week that she was approached to speak only a few minutes before taking the lectern. She hadn’t prepared any remarks. She had nothing planned. She impressed, nonetheless.
“I would say it was just definitely from the heart,” Gauff said. “And, I think when you speak from the heart, you get the message that you want.”
Her message that day went viral. Her off-the-cuff speech was only a couple of minutes long, but it resonated. And while she said she was nervous to get up in front of the crowd, the toughest part was following the remarks of her grandmother, who in 1961 integrated Seacrest High School in their hometown.
“I think it’s sad that I’m here protesting the same thing that she did 50-plus years ago,” Gauff said to begin her own remarks, which went on to invoke the names of Floyd and Breonna Taylor and Trayvon Martin, who was shot and killed in her home state just a few weeks before her eighth birthday. “So why am I here at 16 still demanding change?” she pleaded. “And it breaks my heart. Because I’m fighting for the future for my brothers. I’m fighting for the future for my future kids. I’m fighting for the future for my future grandchildren. So we must change now.”
The video was widely shared and drew public words of praise and respect from such tennis legends as Billie Jean King and Kim Clijsters.
“I definitely think George Floyd — at least for the world, opened a lot of people’s eyes — but I feel like this topic has been close to me ever since I was a kid. Just because my parents have always talked to me about it,” Gauff said. “And I think I was able to finally be able to put it into words, because obviously — talking about an issue like this — you have to be very educated on the topic to make sure you don’t say the wrong words.
“The reception has been really good from (social media) followers and people, in general. The public, they have been very kind, and I think a lot of people are very motivated by my speech.
Her sponsors — such as New Balance, Rolex and Microsoft — stepped up, too, reaching out to Gauff to tell her how proud they were of her and asking what they could do to help.
Gauff says she’s glad that more and more people are speaking out about the social justice issues that have always been a part of her life, not only in the United States but globally. Fellow players from other parts of the world who have said they weren’t as familiar with those issues have thanked her for raising their own awareness.
She said this week that she appreciated those responses, and that she had learned a lot about herself over these past several months. The 16-year-old also said she was happy to return to the tennis court, where — at this stage in her young career — the joy of the competition means just as much as the many milestones that will surely come.
“I think my goal for the rest of the year is just to have fun competing again and really enjoy competing, because I think when I’m not so worried about results or rankings — I think that’s when I play my best tennis.”
Top Seed Open
When: Through Sunday
Where: Top Seed Tennis Club in Nicholasville
TV: Tennis Channel (no spectators)
This story was originally published August 12, 2020 at 6:05 PM.
