Cori Dionne “Coco” Gauff, an American professional tennis player, was born on March 13, 2004, to Delray Beach, Florida natives Candi (née Odom) and Corey Gauff. Her father worked as a healthcare executive after participating in college basketball at Georgia State University. Her mother was a Florida State University track and field athlete and a teacher.
Gauff has won eight doubles victories, five of which she shared with Jessica Pegula and three with Caty McNally. She has also won six singles titles on the WTA Tour, including a major at the 2023 US Open.
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She became the top junior in the world after winning the junior French Open singles championship in 2018 and a junior major doubles title at the 2018 US Open.
In March 2019 at the Miami Open, Gauff made her WTA Tour debut and at the 2019 Wimbledon, she was given a wild card to the qualifying round, where she advanced to the main draw at the tournament’s youngest-ever age.
She gained prominence when she defeated Venus Williams, a seven-time major singles champion and former world No. 1, in the first round of the tournament.
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Gauff later that summer made it to the US Open third round. At the 2019 Linz Open, she won the WTA Tour singles championship at the age of 15 years and 7 months, becoming the Tour’s youngest singles champion since 2004.
She made her debut in a major final in women’s doubles at the US Open in 2021, and in singles at the French Open in 2022.
She won both her first major singles championship at the US Open and her first WTA 1000 title at the Cincinnati Masters in 2023.
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Gauff was born and raised in Atlanta, where she also started playing tennis at the age of six. However, to take advantage of greater training opportunities, her family relocated to Delray Beach when she was seven years old. At age eight, she began working with Gerard Loglo at the New Generation Tennis Academy.