Coco Gauff, the rising tennis star, recently shared a humorous anecdote about receiving a prestigious award months after winning it. The ESPY award, which she won for Breakthrough Athlete of the Year, had been sitting at her parents’ house for quite some time.
In a lighthearted Instagram post, Gauff expressed her excitement upon finally unboxing the trophy. She jokingly commented on the delay, stating, “Lol, please tell me why I’m just now unboxing my ESPY trophy from months ago. Lol, it was at my parents’ house. This is insane!!!
Coco Gauff was honored to receive a prestigious honor, but the WTA’s world No. 3 only got her hands on the trophy months after being given the award.
Gauff has been one of the most discussed tennis players worldwide since she broke through at Wimbledon in 2019 as a 15-year-old, reaching the fourth round. That included beating one of her idols, Venus Williams, in the opening round.
The American is already starting to live up to the significant expectations put on her shoulders. She won last year’s US Open and was the world No. 2 for a few months during this season after overtaking Aryna Sabalenka.
Gauff’s form dipped for a few months in 2024, which is why a former WTA world No. 1 called her more unstable than Sabalenka and Swiatek, who finished the season at No. 1 and No. 2 in the rankings.
The 20-year-old finished 2024 very strongly, though. Gauff secured the second-biggest title of her career at the WTA Finals after an epic final against Qinwen Zheng and won the China Open a few weeks before.
Emerging on the WTA Tour at such a young and playing a superb brand of tennis that combines shot-making with unmatched athleticism would be enough to make Gauff popular without considering any other factors.
However, Gauff is also vocal off the court about other issues, such as racial and gender quality and combating discrimination against the LGBTQ community. That is why she had reservations about the WTA Finals being held in Saudi Arabia.
In addition, Gauff is among the best athletes at communicating with her fans, mainly on Instagram. She also hits back at trolls when necessary, the most recent example being after she shared photos and videos of cooking and baking with her cousins.
The combination of excellent tennis and a charismatic and important personality off the court led SportsPro to rank her the most marketable tennis player in the world, ahead of players like Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
