Coco Gauff took home the 2023 US Open Championship trophy yesterday, her first-ever Grand-Slam title. The teen's 6-2 triumph over finalist Aryna Sabalenka during the annual tennis tournament made her the third youngest American to ever win the title, joining the likes of legendary players Serena Williams and Tracy Austin.
Gauff — who is currently ranked sixth in the women's world tennis rankings — first rose to fame after beating her idol, Venus Williams, at Wimbledon in 2019, and, later on, four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka. And at just 19 years old, she's just getting started.
Here, five facts you might not have known about the rising tennis superstar.
Her parents are former athletes.
Coco's parents Candi and Corey Gauff are both athletes in their own right. Her dad, Corey, played basketball at Georgia State University, while her mom, Candi, was a former gymnast and competed as a hurdler and heptathleteat Florida State University.
She started playing tennis at age 6.
While Coco's dad originally wanted her to be a basketball player like him, she didn't like the sport and began playing tennis at 6 years old after seeing Serena Williams win the 2009 Australian Open. By the time she was 7, her family moved from Atlanta to Delray Beach for better training opportunities, where she's been coached by Patrick Mouratoglou, who is also Williams's tennis coach.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/coco-gauff-explainer-embed-acba01689e594cffa597cb05332c763b.jpg "Who Is Coco Gauff? 5 Things to Know About the 19-Year-Old Tennis Superstar (1)")
Coco isn't her real name.
Coco Gauff's real name is actually Cori Gauff. Coco is just a nickname.
"I believe it was my aunt who said, 'Oh, we should just call her Coco,'" she said during an interview with Sports Illustrated Kids in 2021. "When my dad was growing up, people used to call him Co and I guess they just said, 'Oh, Coco’s a cool nickname.' Ever since then, I’ve been going by Coco. For sure more people used Coco than Cori."
She's a millionaire.
At just 19 years old, Coco is already a multi-millionaire. According to her WTA profile, the teen has taken home over $8 million in prize money alone, which doesn't count her endorsem*nt deals and odd acting jobs (fun fact: she once played Serena Williams's stunt double in a Delta commercial).
She's the face of New Balance.
When she was 14 years old, Coco signed her first contract with New Balance in 2018, before inking "a long-term extension" to her deal with the Boston-based athletic brand four years later. Celebrating the multi-year extension, Coco and New Balance released a new colorway of her signature Coco CG1 “All in the Family” sneakers, which she sported while playing at the WTA Finals.
