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Olivia Gadecki (Australia) vs. Coco Gauff (USA)

Where to Watch: MEGOGO

American trailblazer Coco Gauff, enjoying an unexpectedly strong clay season, is now regarded as the third favorite at Roland Garros, behind Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Świątek. In Paris, Gauff begins her quest for the long-awaited title (she previously won Roland Garros last year in doubles alongside Kateryna Siniakova and reached the singles final in 2022) against 23-year-old Australian Olivia Gadecki. Gadecki is a competitive opponent mainly in doubles or mixed doubles, but in singles, she’s yet to advance beyond the first round at any Grand Slam outside her home turf in Australia.

Olivia Gadecki’s Journey So Far

The Australian turned pro at 17 in 2019 and has already earned her first million dollars in prize money. However, the bulk of her success—and probably earnings—come from doubles and mixed doubles. This includes her 2025 Australian Open title with seasoned compatriot John Peers, a former world No. 2 in doubles who has won the Australian Open and reached finals at hard-court Slams, and also claimed Olympic gold on clay at the 2024 Games. Yet, in singles, Gadecki has little to boast about, especially on fast hard courts or grass, let alone slow, tactical clay.

This season, Olivia reached the third round in Zaragoza, though the competition wasn’t the toughest, before falling 3-6, 3-6 in the semifinals to 19-year-old Spanish rising star Caitlin Keough-Vedo. After moving to France, at Saint-Malo she endured a tough three-setter against promising 18-year-old Afro-Canadian Victoria Mboko (6-2, 2-6, 6-3) before losing in straight sets to local favorite Elsa Jacquemot (2-6, 5-7). At the Rome 1000 event, Gadecki lost in the qualifying final to fellow Australian Ajla Tomljanović (1-6, 3-6), but entered the main draw as a lucky loser, where she put up a surprisingly strong fight against American Caroline Dolehide, eventually bowing out in three sets: 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 2-6.

Coco Gauff’s Clay Season So Far

Defying expectations, Coco has delivered a spectacular run on clay—no other way to put it. With 11 wins out of 14 matches across three tournaments, she reached the finals in Stuttgart and Rome, falling to clay specialist Jasmine Paolini, and then the final in Madrid where Aryna Sabalenka was too strong. Back-to-back finals at two WTA 1000 events is a remarkable achievement even for Gauff. She became just the seventh player ever to reach finals in both Madrid and Rome in the same season, with Rome marking her 13th WTA final overall. Notably, she earned at least two wins over top-10 opponents, including a dominant 6-1, 6-1 victory over Iga Świątek in Madrid and an epic semifinal against China’s Qinwen Zheng in Rome that lasted three and a half hours (7-6 (7-3), 4-6, 7-6 (7-4)). In that final set, Gauff twice trailed by a break and even saved a match point on Zheng’s serve. Remarkably, this was only the third WTA 1000 semifinal in history decided by a final-set tiebreak.

Gauff remains self-critical, acknowledging there’s room for improvement, especially with her serve, which has been plagued by double faults. While on slow clay this isn’t as detrimental as on fast hard courts, it’s an area she’s keen to refine.

“In the Rome final, I planned to play more aggressively because I knew that if I stayed passive, Paolini would make me run all over the court. Regarding the double faults, yes, I need to improve my serve if I want to take the next step; it’s definitely something I have to work on. As for unforced errors, I was simply trying to attack. The court was very slow in the semifinal, making it tough to hit winners—we made mistakes, and points were won either by forcing the opponent into an error or capitalizing on their unforced mistakes. Still, I reached the finals of two tournaments—despite mistakes and maybe not playing my best—losing to two strong opponents: Sabalenka in Madrid and Paolini in Rome. There’s a lot to improve and work on, which both motivates me and boosts my confidence. If I come into Roland Garros in good shape, I believe I can have a successful run—hopefully reaching the final, and maybe on my third attempt, I’ll finally win it. But there’s a long way to go,” Gauff said.

Head-to-Head History

Coco Gauff

Olivia Gadecki and Coco Gauff have never faced each other on the WTA Tour, and there are no records of meetings in juniors either.

Match Prediction: Olivia Gadecki vs. Coco Gauff

Predicting Gauff’s early-round matches against clear underdogs is always tricky. Honestly, this one largely depends on Gauff’s mindset rather than Gadecki’s performance. Olivia can only try to keep the ball in play. If Coco is determined to finish quickly and get back to her favorite smartphone apps or a tablet series, and if she fights for every point, this match will be over swiftly. However, if Gauff eases into the tournament, adapting gradually to the court without rushing, it might resemble her Australian Open performances and possibly extend to three sets.

That said, let’s hope for the first scenario—a dominant win for the favorite with a game difference of around minus seven, projecting a scoreline near 6-2, 6-2 in Coco’s favor, or perhaps even more decisive (who knows, maybe she’ll decide to “open the bakery” like Iga Świątek).

French Open 2025: Emma Raducanu ‘coming to terms’ with ‘complicated’ clay relationship, raring to go in return to Roland-Garros

Watch Emma Raducanu preview her French Open 2025 campaign, as the British star returns to the southern Paris clay for the first time since 2022. Raducanu admits her relationship with the surface is “complicated”, with the 22-year-old lacking experience after choosing to focus on the grass swing in recent years. Stream the 2025 French Open live and on-demand on discovery+.

Coco Gauff will travel a smooth road in Paris. Gauff got the best draw in the women’s bracket for the 2025 French Open, based on the average world ranking of likely opponents. The 128-player Grand Slam event gets underway on May 25.

Gauff, who recently returned to No. 2 in the world rankings, is the big name in the bottom half of the draw. She wouldn’t face any other top contenders for the title – No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka, four-time champion Iga Swiatek, or 2024 runner-up Jasmine Paolini – until the final.

Gauff, who reached the French final in 2022, also has a relatively easy draw for the opening rounds. She starts the event against No. 93 Olivia Gadecki. Should she reach the second round, she is guaranteed to face an opponent with an even worse ranking – either No. 121 Chloe Paquet or qualifier Tereza Valentova.

Who got the easiest and toughest draws for the French Open?

The other top seed in Gauff’s eighth of the draw is No. 15 Barbora Krejcikova, who has been injured for most of 2025.

Toughest draw for a top seed

No. 5 seed Iga Swiatek’s spring string of bad news continues. Based on the average world ranking of likely opponents, Swiatek got the worst draw of any of the tournament’s single-digit seeds. Swiatek’s recent slide landed her in the same half of the draw as Sabalenka and Paolini. She likely won’t face any opponents outside of the top 50.

Swiatek’s first match is against world No. 41 Rebecca Sramkova. In Round 2, she’d face No. 42 Xinyu Wang or 43rd-ranked former U.S. Open champion Emma Raducanu.

Coco Gauff

Toughest draw overall

Four-time major champion and current world No. 49 Naomi Osaka got a rotten draw for Roland Garros – the toughest in the field, based on the average world ranking of likely opponents. She opens the tournament against No. 10 seed Paula Badosa, who is coming off a semifinal appearance at the most recent Slam in Australia.

Even if Osaka pulls off the opening-round upset, she likely would not open up her section of the draw by doing so. She most likely would face no players worse in the rankings than No. 44 in subsequent rounds.

Best opportunity for an unseeded player

World No. 64 Katie Volynets is in a good position to stay in Paris through the first few rounds. She’ll face a qualifier, Joanna Garland, in the first round. Her most likely opponent in the second round is Yulia Putintseva, the event’s 32nd – and final – seeded player.

The American fell short in the final three years ago. She’s still motivated to do better

For some, reaching a Roland-Garros singles final would be a career-topping moment. For American wunderkind Coco Gauff, who admittedly underperformed during her 6-1, 6-3 loss to Iga Swiatek in the 2022 final in Court Philippe-Chatrier, the experience continues to be a prime source of motivation.

“It was a tough feeling for me, because I felt like I very much underperformed in that final,” Gauff told the press on Friday in Paris. “Not necessarily game-wise, but I was very disappointed in how I approached that match mentally. I just felt like maybe I could never overcome that.

“Then I just turned it into motivation.”

Three years – and one Grand Slam title, at the 2023 US Open – later, Gauff hopes to get another shot at the crown in Paris.

But the 21-year-old knows she isn’t the only one. With four-time champion Iga Swiatek still searching for her best tennis, opportunity is knocking for the top clay-courters on the WTA Tour. No.2-seeded Gauff, who recently reached back-to-back finals at Madrid and Rome, assesses the field with a sanguine tone.

“I would definitely think it’s pretty open,” Gauff, who recently recorded an eye-catching 6-1, 6-1 win over Swiatek in Madrid, said. “I mean, I hope that I’m up there, but there is obviously Jasmine [Paolini], Aryna [Sabalenka], Iga [Swiatek], [Zheng] Qinwen, Mirra [Andreeva]. There’s some more I can name that all have the opportunity. Who knows?”

Gauff witnessed first-hand what a true wide open Grand Slam tournament looks like when she saw then-unknown qualifier Emma Raducanu steal her way to the US Open title in 2021.

“We all have seen things like the US Open happen, when Emma won,” she said. “So there is literally anybody [who can] can win this tournament.”

If that’s the case, then pencil Gauff, who owns a 20-5 lifetime record in Paris and has reached at least the quarterfinals in each of the last four years, in for a chance.

Working in her favour is her comfort level on the surface. The American is not just at ease on the terre battue, she thrives on it. Success came at a young age on the clay for Gauff in 2018 when she became the youngest player to win the Roland-Garros girls’ title in a quarter century, at the age of 14.

“Once I got on tour, I was, like, ‘Okay. I actually feel really comfortable on this surface.’ she said. “I’ve noticed that when I would go from hard to clay it was pretty easy for me to transition to.”

Gauff says her forehand, long an area of exploitation for her opponents, is more effective on the surface, and her elite movement only adds to her invincibility on the terre battue.

Coco Gauff

“I think especially with how heavy I hit on my forehand side, I definitely think it helps enhance that,” she said. “Then obviously athleticism, I feel like it’s very hard to win on this surface if you don’t move well.”

Mirra Andreeva, a semi-finalist in Paris last year, dropped two matches to Gauff on the clay this spring. She reports that it is next to impossible to get the ball past the American.

“Coco, she’s very, very athletic,” Andreeva said on Friday in Paris. “So it’s kind of tough to finish the point playing aggressively against her, because I feel like she’s always there, and she’s always running for every ball and she always tries to put one more ball back in the court.”

As more stellar results come in, the Florida native’s confidence on clay only grows. Gauff has produced 11 victories from 14 matches on clay this spring, including four top 10 wins.

All the more reason to approach this year’s clay Grand Slam with wind in her sails.

“It definitely gives me a lot of confidence with the results over the last few weeks,” she said, “but I think just putting those results in the past and focusing on the next two weeks here [is important].”

French Open 2025

Dates: 25 May-8 June Venue: Roland Garros

Coverage: Live radio commentaries across 5 Live Sport and BBC Sounds, plus live text commentaries on the BBC Sport website and app

Will Iga Swiatek’s reign at the French Open continue – or can one of her rivals dethrone the ‘Queen of Clay’?

The 23-year-old is the three-time defending champion in Paris and has won four of the past five titles there.

But Poland’s former world number one does not arrive at Roland Garros with her usual air of invincibility.

Swiatek has not lifted a trophy, or even made a final, since winning the French Open 12 months ago – a period during which she served a one month doping suspension.

Among the main threats to Swiatek’s bid to become the first woman to win four consecutive French Open titles are Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff.

Sabalenka replaced Swiatek as world number one towards the end of 2024, having won two of the four Grand Slams that year.

The Belarusian, runner-up at the Australian Open in January, is in imperious form. She won the Madrid Open in the build-up to Roland Garros and has won 34 of her 40 matches this season.

American Gauff, meanwhile, has not lost before the quarter-finals in her past four French Open appearances.

Runner-up three years ago, 2023 US Open champion Gauff was denied another title tilt by Swiatek in the semi-finals last year.

Who else can challenge for the title?

American world number three Jessica Pegula is chasing a first major but, after missing last year’s tournament through injury, is yet to go beyond the quarter-finals at the French Open.

Italy’s Jasmine Paolini reached two major finals in a breakout 2024 season, including losing to Swiatek in Paris, and beat Gauff to the Italian Open title in May.

History-making teenager Mirra Andreeva is also a contender. The 18-year-old Russian reached the semi-finals last year and, after becoming the youngest player to win a WTA 1,000 title in February, could become the youngest woman to win a major since 2004.

China’s Zheng Qinwen, meanwhile, won Olympic gold at on the Roland Garros clay last summer and stunned Sabalenka at the Italian Open earlier in May.

Boulter leads British women

Katie Boulter is the top-ranked British woman in the singles draw but the 28-year-old has never won a match at the French Open.

However, Boulter won her first WTA Tour match on clay in Madrid last month before celebrating her first clay-court title at a WTA 125 event in Paris last week.

Former US Open champion Emma Raducanu said she was beginning to “build a relationship” with clay courts while completing her French Open preparations in Strasbourg, but suffered an injury scare in her second-round exit.

Raducanu will hope to overcome any back issue quickly, having returned to the world’s top 50, reached the Italian Open fourth round and beat world number 17 Daria Kasatkina on the clay in recent months.

Fellow Britons Sonay Kartal and Jodie Burrage will also contest the women’s singles.

Britons Olivia Nicholls is in the women’s doubles with partner Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia, while Harriet Dart will play alongside Australia’s Kimberley Birrell.

Alcaraz, Sinner, Swiatek and Gauff present as top tennis stars hold showdown talks with Grand Slam bosses

A group of top-10 WTA and ATP stars met with the chiefs of each of the four Grand Slams at Roland Garros on Thursday to discuss prize money, player welfare and giving them more say in decisions that directly impact them at the majors.

As previously reported by the Associated Press, the elite of the women’s and men’s tours, including Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff, signed a letter to the four slams at the end of March, requesting an in-person meeting with the heads of the four majors to bring forth the aforementioned issues.

The meeting, which was initially meant to take place at the Madrid Open last month, finally materialised in Paris on Thursday ahead of Sunday’s start of the French Open.

Talks lasted around an hour and The National understands it was attended by Alcaraz, Sinner and Casper Ruud from the ATP Tour, and Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula and Gauff from the WTA Tour.

The players are seeking a greater percentage of tournament revenue, would like the slams to make financial contributions to the player welfare programmes funded by the tours, and perhaps more importantly, demand a seat at the table when it comes to some of the major decisions taken that impact competition, and their wellbeing at tournaments.

In Madrid a few weeks ago, Gauff noted the disparity between the percentage of revenue dedicated to athletes in other sports compared to tennis.

“As you know, tennis and the percentage shared in revenue isn’t nearly as close as other sports. So, I definitely think that’s something in our sport that we can do. It won’t only benefit top players, it will also benefit lower-ranked players as well,” said the American.

“In other sports, you look at the 100th best player in maybe basketball or football or soccer or anything, and the percentage that they give versus our 100th or 200th best is not great.

“So, I think for us, we kind of understood maybe the privilege and the audience that we can get as top players to kind of make that change. So, we just sent that letter, and hopefully to have the conversation get started, and hopefully how that can improve in the future.”

The majors have been increasing their prize money commitment almost every year. This year, Roland Garros is offering a total prize pot of €56.352 million, up 5.21 per cent from last year. There will be prize money increases in every round and the men’s and women’s singles champions will each earn €2.55 million.

Gauff added: “I’m very aware that we are professional athletes, and we do live a very privileged life and make money doing something that, you know, is pretty easy. Not easy, but you know what I mean. I think it’s just a very nuanced conversation.”

“I always say this, especially as a female athlete in tennis, I always say that when I look at other sports, we’re very privileged. You look at WNBA and even some of the soccer, and the money they’re getting for the amount of effort they put in is not close.

“So, I’m very lucky that tennis had pioneers like Billie Jean King and Venus Williams [who] started that conversation very early on. So, yeah, I think it’s just continuing that conversation within our sport, but also having that conversation so that other sports can reach that too.”

The fact that the women and men are coming together to raise such issues is fairly unprecedented, especially in recent tennis history.

Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek
MASON, OHIO – AUGUST 19: Iga Swiatek of Poland congratulates Coco Gauff after their match during the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open at Lindner Family Tennis Center on August 19, 2023 in Mason, Ohio. Matthew Stockman/Getty Images/AFP (Photo by MATTHEW STOCKMAN / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)55

Conversations about approaching the Grand Slams started several months ago and were spearheaded by members of the WTA Player Council, according to world No 3 Pegula.

The letter sent to the majors coincided with the antitrust lawsuit filed by the PTPA, a player association co-founded by Djokovic, against the ATP and WTA tours but Pegula insists the two initiatives are completely unrelated.

“It’s totally unrelated. 100 per cent unrelated,” Pegula said in Madrid. “It’s something that we were working on seven, eight months ago. So it’s just been in the works. I don’t want to say, like, too much because it hasn’t really gone anywhere yet. It’s just started. It’s new.

“But I’ll definitely say it’s not related to what the PTPA are doing. It was honestly just a coincidence of the timing.”

Reigning Australian Open champion Madison Keys was part of the early conversations sparked by the WTA Player Council. The American world No 7 believes having a seat, and a voice, at the table is will be crucial moving forward.

“We really wanted to have a more open communication with the slams and just at least know what was going on. And so that was really a big thing that we kind of started and pushed,” said Keys in the Spanish capital.

“And I feel like it’s just been years and years of finally getting it here. And I would imagine that the council at this point felt like it was a good time to bring the men in as well and have a unified voice.

“But yeah, it’s just we want some more open communication and just the ability to kind of be in the room when decisions are being made.”

While full details of what happened in the meeting are yet to be revealed, The National understands that a formal letter will be sent by the players requesting the Grand Slams commit to a timeline to start addressing their demands.

No. 2 seed Coco Gauff gets favorable draw at French Open. Other key observations.

Heading into Thursday’s draw for the French Open, there was only one huge storyline: Where would Iga Swiatek, the women’s champion four of the last five years, end up?

Due to a recent dip in form, Swiatek shockingly fell to the No. 5 seed, meaning one of the top four seeds would have to face the most accomplished clay courter of their generation in the quarterfinals.

The loser of that random drawing?  Jasmine Paolini, who lost to Swiatek in last year’s final and comes to Roland Garros in top form, having just won the Italian Open in her home country.

The big winner? Coco Gauff.

Bulls senior golfer Shubham Jaglan considers himself blessed.

He feels that way about his time at USF and back in his home country of India.

“Coming here has really felt like a second home,” Jaglan said. “I feel like I have been very lucky with is having great people around me.”

It’s been quite a ride for Jaglan.

The backstory:

“I started golf when I was about six,” Jaglan said. “I watched YouTube videos to learn instructional stuff.”

His time on YouTube ended up being well worth it. His father, a milkman, even designed a three-hole course on their property so Jaglan could practice.

Jaglan’s self-taught golf skills eventually caught the eye of the golf foundation in India. They approached Jaglan and his family to move from his small village to the big city of Delhi. His parents knew it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.

“Their whole life got uprooted just to help me chase my dreams,” Jaglan said. “They left everything behind and moved with me.”

That move helped his game grow immensely. So much so, he became an acclaimed world champion youth golfer after winning over 100 junior events. His constant and consistent success earned him a chance to give a “Josh Talk,” India’s Ted Talk equivalent, at just 13-years-old.

Dig deeper:

He was also given the nickname “the Tiger Woods of India.”

“I was really young when people called me that,” Jaglan said. “So I didn’t fully understand what it means.”

While he does not wear Tiger’s famous “Sunday Red,” his talent did land him a spot sporting the green and gold at USF at just 16-years-old. However, life in the United States was certainly an adjustment.

“I wasn’t the big fish in the small pond anymore,” Jaglan said.

But that didn’t stop USF golfer from giving it his all. If anything, it motivated him even more.

“He works his tail off day in and day out,” USF senior golfer and Jaglan’s roommate Jake Peacock said. “He’s an inspiration in that sense for sure.”

The 20-year-old has certainly impressed. He currently has the most Eagles, 18, in program history. He is also the only player on the current team to compete in two National Championships.

“He’s got a work ethic that is unmatched,” USF golf coach Steve Bradley said. “He’s been that way for four years. The success he’s having is a combination of what he has done but also how he’s matured mentally and how he’s allowed others to help him.”

Tiger Woods

His chapter is coming to an end at USF pretty soon.

“I feel like I was able to really learn where I needed to get better and move on from there,” Jaglan said.

While Jaglan knows he’s not escaping the “India’s Tiger Woods” moniker any time soon, Bradley still calls him that from time to time. This week he simply wants to be known as a USF senior as he plays for the Bulls for the final time.

“I’m going to miss these guys,” Jaglan said. “Miss the coaches, especially the team trips. Going into regionals, the final round, we were in seventh, and I really did not want that to be my final college round. The guys played amazing that day. I was able to hang in there as well. Glad I get to go play for the national championship.”

What’s next:

While he is pumped to play on the national collegiate stage one last time, Jaglan is looking forward to what happens next.

“Hopefully playing professional, which has been my dream,” Jaglan said. “Taking that next step is exciting.”

Jaglan and the USF golf team will compete in the NCAA National Golf Championship this weekend. Round 1 is on Friday in Carlsbad, California.

Emma Raducanu suffered an injury scare just four days before the French Open begins as the Briton lost to Danielle Collins in Strasbourg.

The 22-year-old produced an excellent first set but needed treatment on a lower back issue after falling 5-0 behind in the second.

Seemingly uninhibited by the problem on her return, Raducanu came back from a break down in the decider – but Collins rallied again to win 4-6 6-1 6-3 and reach the quarter-finals.

Raducanu had taken a wildcard into the clay-court event in Strasbourg to get more practice on the surface before the French Open starts on Sunday.

Despite the off-court medical timeout there appeared to be no obvious signs of discomfort for Raducanu, who put Collins under sustained pressure before the American pulled away.

Collins, a former Australian Open runner-up who beat Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek in Italy last week, plays American top seed Jessica Pegula or Russian world number 30 Anna Kalinskaya in the last eight.

Raducanu said she was building a relationship with clay courts after her impressive opening win over Daria Kastakina on Monday.

Victory over world number 17 Kasatkina came after Raducanu’s run to the Italian Open fourth round, where she won three consecutive clay-court matches for the first time in her career.

Raducanu was rewarded for a solid start against Collins, breaking early for a 3-2 lead, with the American cutting an increasingly frustrated figure in response to her opponent’s consistency.

The Briton won eight points in a row on her way to serving out the set and joked with her team as she took to her chair, having made just six unforced errors in the first 10 games.

Emma Raducanu

But momentum swung dramatically in set two as Collins broke serve twice without reply and Raducanu surpassed her first-set error count in the fourth game.

Raducanu called for the physio shortly before falling 5-0 behind and, after a brief discussion, left the court.

To the relief of her team she appeared to move freely once the match resumed and ended the run of games against her – but Collins would not be denied a deciding set.

Raducanu applied significant pressure, failing to take her first eight break points before converting her ninth to force the set back on serve at 3-3.

But the former US Open champion was outlasted in the closing stages and was twice broken to love as Collins completed the turnaround after two hours and 20 minutes.

Spanish third seed Paula Badosa and Russian Liudmila Samsonova are 2024 runner-up Collins’ potential semi-final opponents in Strasbourg.

The other quarter-finals see American second seed Emma Navarro face Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia, and Kazakh fourth seed Elena Rybakina play Poland’s Magda Linette.

Several of Wednesday’s French Open qualifying matches were suspended by rain, with Britons Dan Evans and Fran Jones among those to see their second-round matches postponed until Thursday.

When Coco Gauff, as a 15-year-old from Delray Beach, Florida, famously defeated Venus Williams at the 2019 Wimbledon as a wildcard, she instantly became a global sensation. Her deep connection to her roots is no secret, often highlighted by her tribute to her hometown and now her latest New Balance drop – the “Delray Coco” kicks. But this connection runs deeper than mere sentiment. As her mother, Candi, once stated in a Teen Vogue interview, “[Coco] has a responsibility. You come from a lineage who has done great things. We wouldn’t put [anything] on you that hasn’t been done [already].” Gauff proudly carries this legacy. But where did it start?

The 21-year-old appeared on the $10.7 billion brand Rolex’s YouTube channel in an exclusive documentary series, ‘Game Changer’. She walks us through her beginnings as a tennis player. What inspired her? Telling her father she wanted to be a ‘GOAT’ after watching Serena Williams at the Australian Open at five or six years old. A heartwarming moment comes when she speaks about her grandparents, Yvonne Lee and Eddie “Red” Odom.

She said, “Growing up, it was never a thought for me to be a professional tennis player. Especially in the Black community, even now, tennis is still so uncommon. This is Atlantic High School. My grandmother, she was the first Black person to attend this school. She’s kind of a local legend. To make big things happen, I think it takes people to change. My grandfather, he’s a baseball coach. He helps run Delray Beach Little League, one of the first African American leagues in the state of Florida.” But how did they pave the way in Delray Beach?

Coco Gauff’s grandmother, Yvonne Lee Odom, faced tough challenges but never backed down. In 1961, she became the first Black student at Delray Beach’s Seacrest High School. Despite segregation, she stood strong, even when banned from a bus or told not to use the same restrooms. Though a sprinter and basketball captain, she was denied a chance to play at Seacrest because of her race, shattering her dream of a college sports scholarship. Still, she never gave up fighting.

Her grandfather, Eddie Odom, has his own story. A baseball lover, he made a big impact in Delray Beach’s American Little League. In 1970, Eddie started a Little League for Black kids, giving them a chance to play organized baseball. “Everyone who knew me on both sides of the track, they understand I love baseball,” Eddie said. “You can be broke, mad, or all the worst things, but at the ballpark, you forget it all.”

Inspired by her family, Coco gives back, too. In her docuseries with Rolex, she noted, “You can inspire people to do things not just from playing, but who you are as a person. My grandparents, they played their role so that I can live my life. I feel like I have to play my role, so somebody else can live a better life.”

During Black History Month, she donated $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) to support HBCUs. She said, “My family has a deep-rooted history with HBCUs, going back to my great, great grandfather.” From May 2025, the “Coco Gauff Scholarship Program” will award scholarships to tennis students through UNCF.

Back in December, she celebrated them winning the Community Lifetime Achievement Award. She shared a heartfelt photo on Instagram with the caption, “community lifetime achievement award 💜 no one more deserving @yvonne.odom my grandparents >>>.” Family pride at its best!

Clearly, her grandparents’ strength and love fuel her success on and off the court. But they don’t hold back on cheering her on through her career either!

Gauff’s grandparents express their pride in the American star

Coco Gauff

At just 21, Coco already boasts 9 titles, including her epic 2023 US Open victory! While she hasn’t clinched a title since winning the WTA Finals in Riyadh and the United Cup with Team USA, she’s still making strides in her 2025 season. Reaching two finals back to back in Madrid and the Italian Open, she’s now the No. 2 ranked player in the world. And her grandmother always knew she’d be great. She said in a post on social media, “Coco, to me, was destined for greatness because as a little girl, she displayed that in many ways. I love you, you know I always say I love you, but do your best.”

Last year, Coco made history as the youngest US flag bearer at the Olympics Ceremony and clinched the WTA Finals! After a rollercoaster six years, what’s Grandma’s advice? “You know I’ve always said that because if you do your best, win or lose, I might not care if you win another match, you already made me proud. So always, do your best. Like your grandaddy said, ‘Never say die,’” she shared.

The Gauff family is bursting with pride! In August 2024 , her grandfather flaunted Coco’s New Balance T-shirt (the $5.3 billion sponsor) on Instagram. The shirt featured Coco chowing down on pizza in New York, and he captioned it, “Look at the new COCO SHIRT… PIZZA in New York..” He’s always so proud of the young tennis star.

Now, with her sights set on a French Open Grand Slam, will Coco conquer, fueled by her community and family’s love? Share your thoughts in the comments below!