Who is Coco Gauff's boyfriend? Here's what we know.
Coco Gauff has become a true breakout star in the tennis world, reaching No. 2 in the world rankings and winning her first Grand Slam at the 2023 U.S. Open.
And if you're here, you might be wondering: does she have a significant other? And if so, who is it?
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Here's what we know: she is reportedly dating someone, but she's not revealing his identity. Why's that? Here's what she told People back in 2024 about keeping some things under wraps: 'I think I felt like I just, some parts of myself I love to share and then some parts I think I just keep to myself.'
She has said it's not a fellow tennis player, and she made a funny joke about that after Challengers came out.
We know that he's musical and wants to act. There are rumors about who it could be, but we don't know officially since Gauff hasn't publicly talked about him beyond those few details.
Here's what else she said to Time back in 2023:
Gauff has had a boyfriend for about a year, whose identity she prefers to keep private. She does share that he's from Atlanta, and not famous. 'This is my first real relationship,' says Gauff. 'To just have someone to talk to who is not involved in tennis at all gives me a fresh perspective.'
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There you have it!
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Coco Gauff boyfriend: Who is it? Is it Jalen Sera?
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Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Coco Gauff's French Open title and a journey into the tennis unknown
ROLAND GARROS, PARIS — When it happens twice, it's not an accident. Coco Gauff is on her way. Nearly two years after her breakthrough win at the 2023 U.S. Open, Gauff staged a stirring comeback against the world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka at the French Open, to capture her second Grand Slam title 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4. Advertisement After two hours and 38 minutes of tense and tight, often messy but occasionally breathtaking tennis from one of the great athletes on the planet, Gauff watched one last Sabalenka ball fly off the court. She collapsed on the clay and rolled over face-first in the red dirt. She cupped her mouth with her hand in disbelief. She looked up at her parents, her father pumping his fist in the air; her mother jumping for joy. There was a hug for Sabalenka, who had made her way around to Gauff's side of the net, and another for Spike Lee, the film director seated in the front row, one of dozens of celebrities who had come to Paris for this, because that's what happens when Gauff plays in a match of this magnitude. And then came the joyous stroll up into the stands to find her parents and the rest of the crew. To find the people who had lifted her out of the dark moments last year, when she had to confront the fact that what happened on a September night in New York might never happen again. Advertisement Gauff's win was for everyone who has ever looked in the mirror and felt that they are going backwards, not forwards; that what carried them to some early success isn't working anymore; that playing a long game, falling behind in the beginning, can make all the difference to coming out ahead. It was also a win for everyone who has ever fought hard to keep their cool when things aren't going their way, when mistakes are coming hard and fast, when the conditions attached to a dream aren't the ones they wanted. That's what Gauff did on a windy and wild day in Paris, as Sabalenka did the opposite. The world No. 1 came unglued, screaming at her coaches. Then she announced to the world Gauff had not won because she had played well, but because Sabalenka had played terribly. All of this has been nearly a year in the making and anything but guaranteed. Change, especially the kind Gauff needed, carries plenty of risk. But the bigger risk lay in not trying something new, even if trying something new involved entirely remaking the two most important shots in tennis while trying to stay at the top of the sport. Last September, just under a year on from her first great triumph, Gauff sat in a media room after hitting 19 double faults and missing countless forehands in a fourth-round defeat to Emma Navarro. The rest of the WTA Tour knew then that if they just stayed with her, put pressure on her serve and attacked her forehand, at some point, the house of cards would collapse. Advertisement 'I don't want to lose matches like this anymore,' she said. Nine months later, through some long stretches of doubt, she has a second Grand Slam trophy for her parents to store at home in Florida. 'I didn't think I could do it,' she said from the center of Court Philippe-Chatrier during the trophy ceremony. In her hotel room Friday night, trying to make herself believe, she wrote down over and over: 'I will be the French Open champion 2025.' Gabby Thomas, the Olympic 200-meter sprint gold medalist, had done her version of this for the Paris Games last summer. 'I was just looking at myself in the mirror and I was telling myself, trying to put it in my brain, so I had that belief,' Gauff said. Advertisement How she did that involves the rarest of innate athletic ability, but also some even rarer qualities in a person as young as Gauff. An honesty about who she is as a tennis player and a person. The drive to see how good she might really be, even if she has already earned enough money and fame to live without ever enduring another weight or track session in her life. Even before winning the 2023 U.S. Open, Gauff was so much more than a tennis player. She is an avatar for a certain type of worldly, TikTok-savvy, Gen-Z female strength. The first Grand Slam boosted her stature tenfold, landing her on the cover of Vogue and the red carpet at the Oscars. She is the world's highest-paid female athlete. That's not what Gauff is in this for. So she plunged headlong into the unknown. Out went the big-name coach, Brad Gilbert, who had helped her to that maiden Grand Slam title in 2023. In came a virtual unknown named Matt Daly, who, along with her longtime coach Jean-Christophe Faurel, convinced her that she was capable of big things once again — if she embraced change. Advertisement How radical? How about changing the way she holds her racket when she serves, even if she's been doing it one way for a decade? How about leaning in on her forehand and seizing the initiative, instead of leaning back and resorting to defense too often. A metaphor if ever there was one, because this has always been about more than tennis for Gauff, a Black American athlete trying, in her words, 'to use her racket to change the world.' 'There's a lot going on in our country right now,' Gauff said in her post-match news conference, the shiny silver trophy beside her. She was here to represent people who look like her, 'who maybe don't feel as supported during this period, and so just being that reflection of hope and light.' Last fall, at the start of all those changes, it looked like getting an opportunity to do that might take a while. Four months, maybe six. Maybe more. But, eventually, the serve was going to be more assured and she was going to be able to boss her way around the court as she never had against the best players in the world, being the aggressor rather than the counterpuncher, if that was what the moment required. Advertisement Very quickly, Gauff was all in. She doesn't do much halfway, and she didn't on Saturday, on the court or off it, even if this was a match in which she had to inhabit the role of supporting actor in the face of Sabalenka's desire to play first-strike from the off. She had won a Grand Slam already, but she said this one was harder. In between, she had had five more shots at a second, and the closest she had come were two semifinals. She didn't want to be a one-hit wonder, and she really wanted this title. With her speed, endurance and willingness to fight the wars of attrition that red clay can require, she had heard for years that this tournament offered her one of her best shots at a major. 'I felt like if I went through my career and didn't get at least one of these, I would feel regrets,' she said. She'd already had plenty of those. Before facing Iga Świątek in the 2022 French Open final, she cried, because she was so nervous. She struggled to breathe. She knew she'd lost before she'd even hit the first ball. Świątek rolled her over and continued to dominate this tournament as few have done — until this year, when Sabalenka, under the roof, proved one set too many. Advertisement On Saturday, Gauff said she felt ready to leave her heart and her lungs on the court, and regardless of the result, she could leave proud. Gauff fell behind early in the first set but clawed her way back as Sabalenka's errors mounted, and she grew more confident that she could put the ball past her when she needed to. She also began to weather Sabalenka's blistering returns, watching more and more of them pound into the net. She started reading the drop shots and legging out the net battles. Still, she ended up on the short end of a 77-minute first set when Sabalenka grabbed the last three points of a tiebreak. That would be as good as it got for Sabalenka. Gauff sat on her chair and told herself to take the pressure off the match. Losing would not be the end of the world. She hates losing, but it happens. She'd go home, she'd see her boyfriend, she'd reset. 'I was able to loosen up after that and play a little bit freer,' she said. Advertisement In weathering the Sabalenka storm but losing the set, she had also forced her opponent to confront her own discomfort. A 6-1 or 6-2 blowout and Sabalenka, who was less able to deal with the intangibles of wind and weather than Gauff, would have been relaxed. The grind she got pulled into sent her into a spiral from which she could not recover. Gauff embraced Sabalenka's descent from a first-strike machine with a lethal drop shot into a player swinging from side to side, trying anything to keep Gauff off balance but, in doing so, sending the American into the side-to-side defense dance that she can do better and longer than anyone in the world. Gauff applied just enough pressure to let the wind and Sabalenka's brain do the work. When it was over, Sabalenka's mind was still a jumble, claiming that some supernatural force had sent ball after ball off the frame of Gauff's racket into the corners of the court, 'like somebody from above was just staying there laughing, like: 'Let's see if you can handle this.'' The person asking her if she could handle this was actually on the other side of the net. Advertisement Gauff knew it had been a decade since her inspiration, Serena Williams — or any other American — had won this title. Williams helped her dream that she could one day do it. With 15,000 people in the stadium chanting her name as the win grew closer, she had her chance to do that for someone else, 'to represent the Americans who look like me and people who support the things that I support.' Nine months after the start of her journey into the unknown, she found out what it was all for. Deep down, she had always known. This article originally appeared in The Athletic. Tennis, Women's Tennis 2025 The Athletic Media Company
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Coco Gauff ‘proud to represent Americans that look like me' in French Open final triumph
Coco Gauff hopes her triumph at the French Open provides a glimmer of positivity for her supporters during a difficult political period in the United States as she clinched her first French Open title on Saturday. Gauff, the second seed, demonstrated her mental fortitude by recovering from a set down to defeat the world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 and win her second grand slam title in Paris. Advertisement 'Obviously there's a lot going on in our country right now with things … like, everything, yeah. I'm sure you guys know,' said Gauff during her press conference. 'But just to be able to be a representation of that and a representation of, I guess, people that look like me in America who maybe don't feel as supported during this time period … just being that reflection of hope and light for those people.' Related: Coco Gauff claims first French Open title after fightback floors Aryna Sabalenka 'I remember after the election and everything, it kind of felt like a down period a little bit, and my mom told me during Riyadh: 'Just try to win the tournament just to give something for people to smile for.' So that's what I was thinking about today when holding that. And then seeing the flags in the crowd means a lot. 'Some people may feel some type of way about being patriotic and things like that, but I'm definitely patriotic and proud to be American, and I'm proud to represent the Americans that look like me and people who kind of support the things that I support.' Advertisement Gauff contested her first grand slam final aged 18 at the 2022 French Open, losing to Iga Swiatek, before defeating Sabalenka at the 2023 US Open to win her first grand slam title. She said that she struggled with anxiety and doubt in 2022, a complete contrast to the confidence she felt before this match. 'I just remembered that ceremony when Iga won, I just remembered trying to take it all in and pay attention to every detail and just feel like I wanted that experience for myself,' said Gauff. 'So when the anthem got played, I vividly remember watching her pretty emotional when the Polish anthem was played. I was, like, 'Wow, this is such a cool moment'. So when the anthem got played today, I kind of had those reflections. 'It was a tough time. I was doubting myself, wondering if I would ever be able to overcome it, especially my mentality going into that match. I was crying before the match and so nervous, and literally couldn't breathe and stuff. I was, like: 'If I can't handle this, how am I going to handle it again?' Then obviously the US Open happened, and now I just felt really ready today, and I was, like: 'I'm just going to leave it all out there, and regardless of what happens, I can leave proud.'' After also losing the Australian Open final this year in three sets to Madison Keys, Sabalenka is now 3-3 in grand slam finals. She did not hide her rage. Asked how Gauff made things difficult for her, Sabalenka credited her opponent's framed shots and lambasted the windy conditions. Advertisement 'Honestly sometimes it felt like she was hitting the ball from the frame,' she said. 'Somehow magically the ball lands in the court, and you are kind of on the back foot. Yeah, it's just, you know, like … it felt like a joke, honestly, like somebody from above was just staying there laughing, like: 'Let's see if you can handle this.'' Sabalenka also claimed that Swiatek, who she defeated in the semi-finals, would have beaten Gauff on Saturday: 'I think Iga … would go out today and she would get the win. Yeah, it just hurts. Honestly hurts. I've been playing really well, and then in the last match, I go out there and perform like I did. That hurt,' she said. Speaking less than an hour after leaving the court, Sabalenka said she already knows plans for the next few days as she tries to get over this tough defeat: 'I already have a flight booked to Mykonos and alcohol, sugar,' she said. 'I just need a couple of days to completely forget about this crazy world and this crazy … if I could swear, I would swear right now, but this crazy thing that happened today. 'And I couldn't today. I think everyone understands. I'm just trying to be very polite right now, but there is no other word that could describe what just happened today on the court. But yeah, tequila, gummy bears, and I don't know, swimming, being a tourist for a couple of days.'
Fox Sports
38 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Coco Gauff handles bad memories and top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka to earn first French Open title
Associated Press PARIS (AP) — Drawing on the painful memory of her defeat three years ago in the French Open final gave Coco Gauff just the motivation she needed to win the clay-court major for the first time. The 21-year-old American defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-4 on Saturday for her second Grand Slam title, two years after winning the U.S. Open. 'I think (the U.S. Open victory) was more emotional but this one was harder,' said Gauff, who managed to handle the elements and the momentum swings better than Sabalenka. "I knew it was going to be about will power and mental (strength)." The victory put to rest the bad memories of her 2022 French Open final loss to Iga Swiatek when, as an 18-year-old, Gauff felt overwhelmed even before stepping onto Court Philippe-Chatrier. 'It was a tough time, I was doubting myself," Gauff recalled. 'I was crying before the match, and so nervous, literally couldn't breathe and stuff." Gauff said that the lopsided loss rocked her confidence to such an extent that she was left 'in a dark place' and feared she was not cut out for winning major titles. 'I thought if I can't handle this how am I going to handle it again?' she said. She handled it just fine on Saturday. The second-ranked Gauff made fewer mistakes and kept her emotions in check to get the better of Sabalenka again at major final, having come from a set down to beat the Belarusian in the 2023 U.S. Open final. Gauff raised the winners' trophy aloft, then kissed it several times. She held her hand over her heart when the U.S. national anthem played. 'This one is heavy," Gauff said. 'It feels great to lift it.' She is the first American woman to win at Roland-Garros since Serena Williams in 2015. It was the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 final in Paris since 2013, when Williams defeated Maria Sharapova, and just the second in the last 30 years. After Sabalenka sent a backhand wide on Gauff's second match point, the 21-year-old American fell onto her back, covering her face with both hands as she started to sob, then got up and held her hand over her mouth. She continued to sob as she patted the clay with her left hand. Gauff greeted Sabalenka at the net with a warm hug and thanking the umpire, Gauff screamed out with joy and relief, then got to her knees and crouched forward, continuing to cry as she savored the win. She hugged later film director Spike Lee and celebrated with her entourage in her box before thanking the fans. 'You guys were cheering for me so hard," she said. "I don't know what I did to deserve so much love from the French crowd.' One thing Gauff could not manage — yet — was a victory speech in French. 'I completely tanked on that," she said, adding that she will try in the future. 'I don't think I could do a whole speech but maybe a good something to say to the French crowd.' Sabalenka praised Gauff for being a 'fighter' and said she deserved the win, but added that the windy conditions made for an error-strewn contest. 'This will hurt so much," Sabalenka said. "Coco, congrats, in the tough conditions you were a better player than me.' Both players were sloppy in the first set, conceding 21 break-point chances and making 48 unforced errors between them, with Sabalenka making 32 yet still winning the set. She made 70 altogether in the match, compared to 30 overall for Gauff. Sabalenka was often frustrated, remonstrating and shouting at herself and frequently turning around to look at her team with an exasperated look on her face. She put her head on her hands a couple of times, and at one point raised her shoulders as if to say 'What's going on?' Gauff said she paid no attention, knowing full well that Sabalenka could find her best game at any moment. The first set looked to be heading Gauff's way when she led 3-0 in the tiebreaker, but Sabalenka steadied herself and clinched it with a forehand volley at the net. Gauff leveled the match with a smash at the net. But Sabalenka stuck to her high-risk approach in the deciding set. One superb rally in the third game drew loud cheers. After an intense exchange of drop shots, Gauff hit a lob that Sabalenka chased down before attempting a shot between her legs — only for Gauff to intercept it at the net. It was a rare highlight on a day when swirling wind troubled both players with the roof open. 'It was tough to plant your feet, the ball was moving so much," Gauff said. 'It was not a day for great tennis, honestly." ___ AP tennis: in this topic
