Coco Gauff on wanting to win TEN Grand Slams, living at home with her parents despite…see more

Coco Gauff on wanting to win TEN Grand Slams, living at home with her parents despite $15M prize money – and how she’ll go all the way at Wimbledon

When I first met Coco Gauff in 2019, the 15-year-old talked about her exams, her parents and her ambition to be the best tennis player of all-time.

She had just qualified for Wimbledon and was about to face her hero Venus Williams in the first round. Her eyes seemed wide with wonder, yet narrowed with focus all at the same time.

It was clear this articulate teenager was something special, but no-one was ready for the sporting and cultural phenomenon that was about to be unleashed.

Five years later, we meet again on the same day, the Saturday before Wimbledon, to reflect on that extraordinary Championships debut and what has happened since.

Gauff is now a Grand Slam champion and has transcended tennis, ever since as a 16-year-old she passionately addressed a crowd outside Delray Beach city hall in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

In 2019 she was in training gear, but now Gauff is dressed like the superstar she has become — cascading braids dyed blonde just last week, a yellow top thrown over one shoulder and that ubiquitous athlete’s accessory, the bucket hat.

Gauff talks about how her career goals have changed, why she is finally ready to move out of her parents’ house and how looking back to that time five years ago helped her win her first Grand Slam title, last year’s US Open.

But first, that summer of 2019 and Gauff begins the story on Florida’s gulf coast.

‘I lost first round in qualifying in Bonita springs, a 100k tournament, and Mom and Dad were like, ‘OK, you need to figure out what you’re going to do’ and then this happened!’ she says.

‘I remember feeling super confident going into Wimbledon qualifiers that I was going to make it to the main draw. I drew the first seed in the first round and won and the other two matches were kind of a blur.

Then obviously the Venus match was insane and that was the moment I thought, ‘Maybe my dreams are closer than I realised’.’ She was on the cover of teen Vogue a few months later and her charisma, ability and vow to ‘change the world with her racket’ enchanted the public.

‘You see those movies about people’s life changing overnight and you don’t think it will happen to you, but it did,’ she says.

‘I didn’t think my story was going to be so captivating for the world to watch, but it was and people loved me for it. I loved that people had joy in watching me play.’