Coco Gauff has etched her place in tennis history one bat swing at a time since making her Grand Slam debut at the age of 17. At the 2021 French Open, Gauff broke a 15-year record by becoming the youngest woman to reach a major slam quarterfinal.
Not only that, but she became the youngest American woman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal since Venus Williams accomplished so at the 1997 U.S. Open when she was 17 years old. Gauff won her first WTA Tour singles title at the 2019 Linz Open, becoming the Tour’s youngest singles champion since 2004. She gained notoriety after beating Williams in the first round of the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.
On Sunday, August 6, she won her most prestigious championship to date, the DC Open, defeating Greek World No.9 Maria Sakkari 6-2, 6-3 in the women’s final. Her fourth singles championship is her first at a WTA-500 event. It is also her first singles victory in the United States. Furthermore, she is now the tournament’s youngest female champion.
“It means a lot to me really,” 19-year-old Gauff said in Washington. “Any American tournament I think is special, but I feel like even more here. I have played Cincinnati and I have played other tournaments in the U.S., even last year in San Jose when this was in San Jose, but I think that there is just something about D.C.”
Gauff was born on March 13, 2004, and thus had not yet entered the world when Williams, her idol, reached four of her nine Wimbledon finals. However, the African-American tennis prodigy progressed up the ranks, winning multiple junior titles before reaching Wimbledon.
Her performance on and off the tennis court has made her one of the most marketable sports stars of her generation, earning millions of dollars. According to Forbes, she will be the world’s seventh highest-paid female athlete in 2022.
According to Forbes, she earned $3.1 million on the court and $8 million off the court. Her off-court salary may be even larger if her agency and parents didn’t take such a calm and steady approach, according to the publication.
Gauff secured her first off-the-field contract with New Balance at the age of 14 and recently extended the pact, which Forbes reports came with a significant pay rise. The firm marked the occasion by releasing a new colorway of Gauff’s famous Coco CG1 performance tennis shoe called “All in the Family.”