Young American Tennis Champion - COCO

Coco Gauff

Coco Gauff is an American professional tennis player. She is the youngest player to be ranked in the top 100 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA). In June 2022, she was ranked 13th in the world in singles and 5th in doubles. Gauff won her first WTA Tour singles title at the 2019 Linz Open. Goff became famous with his victory over Venus Williams in the opening round of Wimbledon 2019.

Gauff was successful as a junior, sponsoring training at Patrick Mouratoglou's Academy in France. She started playing at the ITF Junior Circuit at the age of 13 and became the youngest finalist in tournament history. She was runner-up at the 2017 US Open Junior Championships. She became the No. 1 junior player in the world after winning the 2018 Junior French Open singles title against McNally. She also won the Junior Grand Slam doubles title with McNally at the 2018 US Open.

Gauff embarked on a WTA tour of the Miami Open in March 2019 and won her opening match. She received a wild card to qualify for the 2019 Wimbledon Championships, where she became the youngest player to qualify for a major draw in tournament history. There she advanced to the fourth round, with each of her matches being the most-watched on the day through the first week of U.S. television coverage. Later that summer, still 15 years old, she reached the third round of the U.S. Open. In 2021, she reached the first major doubles final of the US Open women's doubles event, reaching her first major singles final at the 2022 French Open and losing to No. 1 Iga Schwitz.

Gauff was born on March 13, 2004, to Candi (née Odom) and Corey Gauff. She has two younger brothers, four-year-old Cody and nine-year-old Cameron. Her father played basketball at Georgia State University and later served as a healthcare executive, while her mother was a track and field athlete and educator at Florida State University. Gauff grew up in Atlanta and became interested in tennis at the age of four after watching Serena Williams win the 2009 Australian Open. Her parents encouraged her to try many sports, including basketball and track and field. She started playing tennis at the age of six and decided that she wanted to pursue it as a career because it was an individual sport and at the age of eight she had the initial success of winning "Little Mo" eight and under. Goff recalled, "I'm not much of a teammate. I loved the game of tennis.

When Goff was seven, her family moved back to Delrey Beach so she could get better training opportunities. While in Florida, she worked with Gerard Log low at the New Generation Tennis Academy from the age of eight. Goff's parents left their careers to focus on their daughter's training. Her father later became her primary coach and her mother oversaw her home education. Her father had limited experience playing tennis. At the age of ten, Goff began training at the Moratoglu Academy in France, run by Patrick Moratoglu, Serena Williams' longtime coach. Mouratoglou commented, "I will always remember the first time I saw Coco. She came to the Mouratoglou Academy in 2014 to experiment and I was impressed with her determination, athleticism, and militancy."

Gauff continued to succeed - winning the USTA Clay Court National Under-12 and Under-10 Championships at the age of 10 and 3 months - becoming the youngest champion in tournament history

Goff is a former World No. 1 junior player. Goff started playing at the ITF Junior circuit at the age of 13 and went straight to the top A and Grade 1 tournaments. She was runner-up by Jamie Follis at the Prince George County Junior Tennis Championships in Grade 1 in Maryland, her third professional event. In her next event, Goff entered her junior Grand Slam at the 2017 US Open, where she was runner-up by Amanda Anisimova. She did not leave a set before the final in both tournaments. Gauff became the youngest girls' singles finalist in U.S. Open history.

Gauff made her debut on the ITF Women's Circuit in May 2018 as a qualifier in the $25K event at Osprey, where she won her first professional match. She received a wild card into qualifying at the US Open but lost her opening match 5 months after turning 14 years old. In her first 2019 tournament, she finished a double runner-up in the $ 100K Midland Tennis Classic Tournament with Anne Lee. Two weeks later, Gauff played her next event at Surprise for $ 25K and reached the grand final in both singles and doubles. Although she finished the singles runner-up, she won her first WTA title with a pair of Paige Hurricanes against Usu Maiten Arconada and Emina Bectas.

In March, Gauff made her WTA main draw debut as a wild card at the Miami Open and recorded her first WTA match win against Caty McNally.She lost her next match to Daria Kasatkina.

Gauff played in one US Open Series tournament at the Washington Open, where she qualified for the main draw but lost in the first round

In 2020 starting the year ranked No. 67, Gauff started 2020 playing at the Auckland Open in New Zealand. In singles, she defeated Viktoria Kuzmova before losing to Laura Siegemund in the second round. Playing doubles with McNally, Gauff reached the semifinals, losing to eventual champions Taylor Townsend and Asia Muhammad.

At the Australian Open, Gauff defeated Venus Williams in straight sets in the first round and Sorana Cirstea in the second round, making it three straight Grand Slams where she reached the third round. She defeated defending champion Osaka in the third, becoming the youngest player to defeat a top-5 player since Jennifer Capriati beat Gabriela Sabatini at the 1991 US Open. In the fourth round, she lost to the eventual champion, Sofia Kenin, in three sets

In 2021 starting the year ranked No. 48, Gauff entered the Abu Dhabi Open, a leadup event to the Australian Open. In the first round, she beat Norwegian Ulrikke Eikeri before falling in the next round to Maria Sakkari. At the Gippsland Trophy, another Australian Open leadup, she beat Jil Teichmann in the round of 64, before falling in the next round to Katie Boulter. In doubles, she and McNally entered the Yarra Valley Classic where they reached the quarterfinals. At the Australian Open, in singles, Gauff again beat Teichmann in the first round, but fell in the Round of 64 to the fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina, in straight sets. In doubles, she and McNally fared better, falling to Demi Schuurs and Nicole Melichar in the quarterfinals.

2022: First Major singles & doubles finals

Seeded 18th at the Australian Open, Gauff lost in the first round against Wang Qiang in straight sets.

In February, she reached the quarterfinals at the Qatar Open by defeating Shelby Rogers, Caroline Garcia, and third seed Paula Badosa. In the quarterfinals, she lost to sixth seed Maria Sakkari. In doubles, she paired with Jessica Pegula to win her first WTA 1000 doubles title, beating the third-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens in the final. With the win, she climbed to a career-high No. 10 in the doubles rankings on 28 February 2022.

Gauff reached her first Grand Slam singles final at the French Open, defeating Rebecca Marino, Alison Van Uytvanck, Kaia Kanepi, 31st seed Elise Mertens, Sloane Stephens, and Martina Trevisan before losing to Iga Świątek in straight sets. She reached the final in doubles