Coco Gauff on wanting to win TEN Grand Slams, living at home 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 become 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 surprise, yet narrowed in focus.

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

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

Now a Grand Slam champion, Gauff has transcended tennis since she passionately addressed a crowd outside Delray Beach City Hall as a 16-year-old in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

In 2019, she wore a tracksuit, but now Gauff is dressed like the superstar she has become: a cascade of braids that she dyed blonde last week, a yellow one-shoulder top and the ubiquitous athlete accessory: the bucket hat.

Gauff talks about how her career goals have changed, why she’s finally ready to leave 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’s story begins on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

“I lost the first round of qualifying in Bonita Springs, a 100k tournament, and Mom and Dad said, ‘Okay, you have to figure out what you’re going to do,’ and then this happened!” she says.

‘I remember going into the Wimbledon qualifiers I was very confident I was going to make the main draw. I drew the top seed in the first round and won and the other two matches were a bit of a blur.

‘Then of course the Venus match was crazy and that was the moment I thought: “Maybe my dreams are closer than I thought.” A few months later she was on the cover of the teen magazine Vogue and her charisma, her ability and her promise to ‘change the world with her racket’ captivated the public.

“You see movies where people’s lives change overnight and you don’t think it’s going to happen to you, but it has,” she says.

“I didn’t think my story would be so compelling for the world to watch, but it was and people loved me. I loved that people had fun watching me play.”

Gauff seemed like a kid in a hurry in 2019, but her rise to the top of the sport has been measured. Her ranking has improved every year since 2019: 69, 48, 22, 7, 3. So far this year she has risen to number 2.

Would 15-year-old Coco have been happy with what her 20-year-old self has accomplished?

“I think so,” Gauff replies. “My goal was to win a Grand Slam as a teenager and qualify for Tokyo 2021. Literally after I lost in that fourth round at Wimbledon, I set those goals.

“I’m very happy with the way I’ve arranged everything. It wasn’t easy.”

That last comment is a hint at the sheer expectation that has become part of Gauff’s life. She’s struggled in the first three Grand Slams of the 2023 season, culminating in a first-round loss here. And Gauff reveals how that low point at Wimbledon made her look back on her debut.

“After that first Wimbledon I felt a lot of pressure,” she says. “I felt almost suffocated by the expectations, like I wasn’t playing for myself.

‘That changed after I lost in the first round last year. I realized that this mentality was not sustainable. I felt that if I continued like this, tennis would become unpleasant. I realized that I should worry about myself and not about the other expectations people have of me.

‘I went back to the mentality I had when I was 15 — there was only one match I was nervous about and that was against Venus and that was because it was Venus, not because it was Wimbledon. But I was never nervous in the second round, third or fourth and I feel that now too.

‘There are obviously nerves, but not the suffocating nerves where you think, “What’s going to happen if I lose?” It’s more like, “This is really exciting, I hope I’m doing well.”’

With her newfound attitude, Gauff should have a serious shot at the title this year. Her arch-nemesis is Iga Swiatek, but grass is by far the weakest surface in the world. World No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka is nursing a shoulder injury and back-to-back finalist Ons Jabeur is struggling with form. Lifting the Venus Rosewater saucer would be a good way for Gauff to start her 20s.

It feels like the sport that has given Gauff so much with one hand has taken her childhood away with the other, but she continues to insist that is not the case.

“I could definitely still be a kid,” she says. “I probably matured faster than a lot of people, but I think my parents did a good job of making it as relaxed as possible, creating an environment where I could still be a kid and surrounding me with people who respected that.”

It has helped that she still lives at home with her parents, despite earning £12 million ($15 million) in prize money and much more in sponsorships. But that is set to change as she prepares to buy her own home.

“But not for long!” she says when asked about living at home. “I’m staying in Delray, not far away, but just not home. I’m busy.”

So, has Gauff revised her expectations since that 15-year-old, in the same tone in which she said she hoped, as during her exams, said to me, ‘I want to be the best of all time, better than Serena’?

Gauff has indeed overhauled his game, but unlike most other players, he likes to talk about numbers.

“I want to be the best version of myself,” she answers. “When I saw Serena, I thought, ‘There’s no one better than her.’

‘I definitely want to reach at least double figures in Grand Slams. I just want to be the best version of myself, try to win as many Grand Slams as possible and see where life takes me.”