Cori Dionne "Coco" Gauff ( GAWF; born March 13, 2004) is an American professional tennis player. She has a career-high ranking of world No. 2 in singles and of world No. 1 in doubles by the WTA. Gauff has won twelve career singles titles, including two majors at the 2023 US Open and 2025 French Open, as well as the 2024 WTA Finals and four WTA 1000 events. She has also won ten doubles titles, including the 2024 French Open, partnering with Kateřina Siniaková.
A teen sensation, Gauff made her WTA Tour debut in 2019 at age 15. At that year's Wimbledon Championships, she became the youngest player in the tournament's history to qualify for the main draw, where she defeated Venus Williams and reached the fourth round. Gauff won her first WTA Tour singles title at the 2019 Linz Open. She reached her first major singles final at the 2022 French Open. In 2023, Gauff won her first major singles title at the US Open, followed by the WTA Finals title the following year. In 2025, she won a second major singles title at the French Open.
In doubles, Gauff has reached three major finals, finishing runner-up with Caty McNally at the 2021 US Open and Jessica Pegula at the 2022 French Open and prevailing with Siniaková at the 2024 French Open. She reached the No. 1 ranking in 2022 in partnership with Pegula.
Gauff was born at West Boca Medical Center in Boca Raton, Florida, on March 13, 2004, to Candi (née Odom) and Corey Gauff, both from Delray Beach. She has two younger brothers. Her father played college basketball at Georgia State University and later worked as a health care executive. Her mother was a track-and-field athlete at Florida State University and worked as an educator. Gauff lived her early years in Atlanta. She began playing tennis at age six. When she was seven, her family moved back to Delray Beach to have better training opportunities. She worked with Gerard Loglo at the New Generation Tennis Academy starting from the age of eight.
Gauff recalled, "I wasn't much of a team person. I loved tennis. I was so-so about it in the beginning because when I was younger I didn't want to practice at all. I just wanted to play with my friends. When I turned eight, that was when I played 'Little Mo' [tournament] and after that I decided to do that for the rest of my life."
Gauff's parents gave up their careers to focus on training their daughter. Her father later became her primary coach, while her mother oversaw her homeschooling. Her father had limited experience playing tennis growing up. At the age of 10, Gauff began to train at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France run by Patrick Mouratoglou, longtime coach of Serena Williams. Mouratoglou commented, "I'll always remember the first time I saw Coco. She came over to the Mouratoglou Academy in 2014 to try out and she impressed me with her determination, athleticism and fighting spirit.... When she looks at you and tells you she will be number one, you can only believe it." He helped sponsor Gauff through his Champ'Seed foundation, which he created to provide funding for talented juniors who did not have the financial resources to afford high-level training.
Gauff won the USTA Clay Court National 12-and-under title at the age of 10 years and three months to become the youngest champion in the tournament's history.
French Open singles and US Open doubles champion
Gauff is a former world No. 1 junior. She entered the prestigious Les Petits As 14-and-under tournament in 2016 at age 12 and made it to the semifinals. Gauff began playing on the ITF Junior Circuit at the age of 13, skipping directly to the highest-level Grade A and Grade 1 tournaments. She finished runner-up to Jaimee Fourlis in her third career event, the Grade 1 Prince George's County Junior Tennis Championships in Maryland. At her next event, Gauff made her junior Grand Slam tournament debut at the 2017 US Open and finished runner-up to Amanda Anisimova. Gauff did not drop a set before the final in either tournament. She became the youngest girls' singles finalist in US Open history at 13 years, 181 days old.
After beginning 2018 with a semifinal at the Grade 1 Traralgon Junior International in Australia, Gauff lost her opening round match at the Australian Open. She did not enter another tournament in singles until the French, where she won her first career junior Grand Slam tournament title at the 2018 French Open. She did not drop a set until the final, where she came from behind to defeat Caty McNally in three sets. With the title, Gauff became the fifth youngest girls' singles champion in French Open history at 14 years, 89 days old. A month later, following another final win against McNally at the Grade 1 Junior International Roehampton, she became the No. 1 junior in the world.
Gauff reached the quarterfinals in singles at the final two majors of the year. She fared better in doubles at both tournaments, reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon with partner María Lourdes Carlé and winning her first junior Grand Slam tournament doubles title at the 2018 US Open with McNally. Gauff and McNally defeated compatriots Hailey Baptiste and Dalayna Hewitt in the final, in straight sets. In September 2018, Gauff represented the United States at the Junior Fed Cup with Alexa Noel and Connie Ma. The team reached the final against Ukraine. After Gauff won her singles rubber and Noel lost hers, Gauff and Noel won the Junior Fed Cup by defeating Lyubov Kostenko and Dasha Lopatetskaya 11–9 in a match tiebreak. Gauff finished the year with another Grade A title in singles at the Orange Bowl. She ended the season ranked world No. 2 behind Clara Burel.
2018–19: Wimbledon fourth round, WTA 250 title
In May 2018, at the age of 14, Gauff made her debut on the ITF Women's Circuit in the 25k event at Osprey as a qualifier. She won her first professional match. Gauff received a wildcard into qualifying at the US Open, but lost her opening match.
In her first 2019 tournament, Gauff finished runner-up in doubles at the 100k Midland Tennis Classic alongside Ann Li. Two weeks later, Gauff played her next event at the $25k level in Surprise. She finished runner-up in singles and won her first WTA Tour title in doubles alongside Paige Hourigan. Gauff received a wildcard into the Miami Open. In her WTA Tour main draw debut, she came from a set down to defeat wildcard entrant Caty McNally. She lost in the second round to No. 22 Daria Kasatkina. Gauff received a wildcard into qualifying at the French Open, but lost in the second round.
Ranked No. 313, Gauff received a wildcard into qualifying at Wimbledon. She won all three qualifying matches. At the age of 15 years and three months, she became the youngest player to reach the main draw at Wimbledon by qualifying in the Open Era. In her Grand Slam main-draw debut, Gauff upset five-time Wimbledon champion Venus Williams in straight sets. She became the youngest player to win a match at Wimbledon since Jennifer Capriati in 1991. In the second round, she defeated Magdaléna Rybáriková. In the third round, she defeated Polona Hercog, saving two match points in the second set. The hype surrounding her first-round match win led to her third-rounder being moved to Centre Court. In the fourth round, she was eliminated by No. 7 and eventual champion Simona Halep. All four of Gauff's matches were most-watched matches on ESPN on their respective days during the first week of coverage. Her ranking rose to No. 141.
Entering the Washington Open after qualifying, Gauff lost in the first round to Zarina Diyas. In doubles, however, she and Caty McNally won their first career WTA doubles title, defeating Maria Sanchez and Fanny Stollár in the final. Gauff received wildcards into singles and doubles main draw at the US Open. She defeated qualifier Anastasia Potapova and Tímea Babos, both in three sets on Louis Armstrong, but lost in the third round to world No. 1 and defending champion Naomi Osaka. Osaka graciously allowed Gauff an on-court interview after the match, usually only afforded to the winner. In doubles, Gauff and McNally won two matches, including an upset over ninth seeds Nicole Melichar and Květa Peschke. They lost in the third round to eventual runners-up Victoria Azarenka and Ashleigh Barty.