When it comes to her love life, Coco Gauff is one tough nut. Amid the glam and glitz of being a sword (read: racket) yielding diva, and the intense scrutiny/limelight that comes with it, there are some things that Coco would rather keep close to her heart, away from the world. Like her boyfriend…

Having been in a relationship since 2023, the tennis star has counted the exact numbers of steps she’s proceeded to divulge details about her relationship, before retracting. It’s always been bits and pieces of information sprinkled across multiple interviews. The 20-year-old first confirmed her relationship in March last year after her father Corey described it as a “friend who she’s dating”: “He’s a very nice guy. He’s in school now. He’s about to apply for music school. He wants to be an actor and he plays the guitar. He’s not from Delray. He’s actually from Atlanta.”

In an interview with TIME Magazine the very next month, she divulged more. “This is my first real relationship. To just have someone to talk to who is not involved in tennis at all gives me a fresh perspective…,” Gauff said before adding that her mother was her boyfriend’s fourth grade teacher.“My mom always said, if they’re bad in school, they’re probably bad as adults. He’s always been a smart, nice kid.” What’s more?

Ahead of her US Open Final, her mystery man even helped her beat the blues. “Last night, I started a little bit, but honestly, I just called my boyfriend, and I told him let’s talk until it’s time to go to sleep so we spoke until 1:00 a.m. and then I went to sleep,” the 20-year said. Wholesome, right? And, as expected, the couple would also be indulging in normal couple activities, right? Well, no.

Just like last year, Coco Gauff has decided to spend February 14 with her other Valentine—her mother—with some quality time in Dubai. The World No. 3 shared a video of savoring delicious food with Candi Gauff, who is a former heptathlon athlete. Sharing the reel, Gauff wrote, “V-day dinner with my mom @candigauff.” While this time, we didn’t see her rumored boyfriend enter the picture indirectly, the same cannot be said for last year.

Like clockwork, last year too, Coco shared a heap of pictures cruising on a quadricycle on Qatar’s Sealine Desert with her mom for Valentine’s Day. After exiting the 2024 Qatar Open in the second round, she spent her time sightseeing with Candi in Doha. The duo shared snippets of their outings on their respective Instagram handles, and Gauff captioned it as “Motorsport.” That’s not the most interesting part, though.

Jalen Sera, her rumored boyfriend, made sure to hop into the comment section to add a little flirtatious comment. Calling her “Sandwoman”, Sera wrote, “These last two posts really bring out the earthbender in you.”

Having said that, for Coco Gauff, her mother is her constant travel partner. Be it cheering for her daughter at the 2025 United Cup or visiting the Great Wall of China together during their trip to Beijing, Candi has been Coco’s partner in crime. Reflecting on this special bond with her mother previously, Coco Gauff had said, “Yeah, I mean, both my parents are constant support all the time. My mom, it’s just a motherly thing. There’s nothing like a mother-daughter relationship. Especially in swings like Asia where it maybe is more isolated than usual, we just play Uno lot.”

Legendary coach Rick Macci has shared his thoughts on Coco Gauff’s game after the American’s surprise early exit at the Qatar Open.

Gauff fell to a 2-6, 5-7 defeat to world No 21 Marta Kostyuk in her opening match at the WTA 1000 event in Doha on Tuesday.

The world No 3 served seven double faults and won just 33% of her second serve points as she was broken four times in her nine service games by the 22-year-old Ukrainian.

The 20-year-old was also troubled by her serve in her previous match — a 5-7, 4-6 loss to Paula Badosa in the Australian Open quarter-finals last month.

Macci, who coached tennis icons and sisters Serena and Venus Williams, backed Gauff to bounce back while also identifying issues with her serve and forehand.

“Coco will be fine as she is a fighter and has turbo jets in her shoes,” the 70-year-old wrote on X.

“X factor for greatness is the second serve; not connected properly and the forehand is the same.

“When you’re confident, technical flaws can Hide. When you get nervous, they bubble up and opponents Seek.”

Last year, Macci asserted that it would not take long at all to fix the technical problem he sees with Gauff’s second serve.