How Coco Gauff Is Building Her Legacy

Sports enthusiasts are obsessed with anointing the next big thing in any given sport. Who will take over after Brady, LeBron, or Bolt? Tennis is in that exact predicament, with so many of its stars like Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, or the Williams sisters having either already exited the sport or on the verge of their swan song. This has set the stage for the sport’s next torchbearer, 19-year-old Coco Gauff, who on September 10 won her first-ever Grand Slam tournament after defeating Aryna Sabalenka, the then second-ranked tennis player in the world.

It’s often said that there isn’t a blueprint for success, but that didn’t stop the Gauff family from attempting to emulate tennis’ first family: the Williams sisters. Venus and Serena’s success story has been widely and well told. Backed by their mother, Oracene Price, and their famously confident father, Richard Williams III, the Williams family altered their entire way of living to support the dreams of the future tennis phenoms. Coco’s parents, Candi and Corey, did the very same thing. The Gauff parents left their lives and jobs in Atlanta and relocated to Delray Beach, Florida, to dedicate their lives to their daughter’s ascension through the ranks of tennis. They leaned on their immediate family members for help and support as part of a 10-year plan that sought to put Coco in the pro ranks by the age of 18. “We went from two-income home to a no-income home,” Corey told Sports Illustrated in 2019.

Gauff’s dreams of tennis superstardom date back to when she started playing the sport at age 9. “Tennis spoke to me,” she told ESPN in an August 2023 interview. "I liked being alone on the court. I liked the idea of all the mistakes being on me.”

Corey Gauff was also quoted in that same interview as taking note of the support systems around the kind of players he wanted Gauff to resemble. “They all had strong parental figures in their life early on," he said. "Almost every one of them were homeschooled for the benefit of getting more time in the day to spend on the court. I wanted to take the best of what they did and start to put a plan together.”

Many of the dreams encased in that plan ultimately came to fruition. Gauff rocketed through rankings, dominating tournaments that should’ve been well beyond her skill level. “If she crosses a benchmark faster, then you change and plan again for the next couple years. The biggest weapon you have is preparation,” Corey Gauff told ESPN.

And as a Black woman succeeding in tennis, the Serena Williams comparisons were inevitable. It’s a comparison that Gauff saw coming a mile off — her room was always lined with posters of Venus and Serena, and she tried to replicate their game on the court. She even wanted to be the “next” Serena, if not better.

Of course, without the inferno-level trailblazing of the Williams sisters, there probably never would’ve been a Coco Gauff. Despite how integral Venus and Serena are to the history of tennis, we’re not that far removed from tennis fans’ racist mockery of the Williams sisters. The idea of a Black woman being the face of women’s tennis is both simultaneously revolutionary and a matter of legacy.

There’s something that feels uniquely fated about Gauff’s success. It feels almost fabled, the way she immediately took to tennis, her admiration of the Williams sisters, and the drastic sacrifices her family made resulting in first making a name for herself by upsetting Venus Williams in 2019. In just four short years, Gauff is now on the precipice of being the face of women’s tennis.

When we’re talking about Gauff, we’re not just talking about the sport’s latest winner; we’re potentially talking about its future. For nearly a quarter of a century, U.S. women’s tennis has operated under the domination of the Williams sisters. With the throne currently vacated, the sport is percolating with anticipation over who the next “great one” will be. Tennis is a sport that’s built on the greatness of its individuals; it doesn’t rely on historical teams and franchises because it can’t — it needs idols. Though Gauff has a ways to go before she’s regarded in the same pantheon as Venus and Serena, her first championship may ultimately be remembered as her coronation.