The 19-year-old American strode in wearing a white linen sundress.
Side cutouts at the waist, embellished with faux coral, highlighted her sculptural build.
Where many of her fellow athletes wore heels of punishing height, shed chosen platform sandals.
PURE GOLD“I just feel like everything that you go through builds to something,” says Gauff, in a Dior dress, top, and briefs. Sacai boots.Fashion Editor: Tabitha Simmons.
(Better for the feet.)
Asked what she thought of Cancun, Gauff said it reminded her of home, Delray Beach in Florida.
I love the beach, she told reporters.
AIR COCOGauff’s game can be ultraphysical, like that of a track star doing sprints along the baseline. Sacai dress and shorts.
Im like a mermaid, so to wake up every day and see the beach is a dream.
When Gauff won, with a backhand passing shot down the line, Arthur Ashe Stadium erupted.
Gauff has a unique ability to draw energy from a crowd, and they from her.
CLOSE COMPANYThe Gauff family (from left to right): her mother, Candi; her father, Corey; Coco (in Gucci); and her two brothers, Cameron, 10, and Codey, 16.
This has been true ever since she beat Venus Williams in the first round at Wimbledon in 2019.
Gauff was new to the professional tour, ranked 313th, and unknown outside of tennis circles.
She was also, at 15, the youngest woman to qualify for Wimbledon in the Open Era.
CHAIN REACTIONGauff wears a Chanel jacket, shorts, belt, and necklaces. New Balance top.
I said, Thank you for everything youve done, Gauff told the BBC later.
I wouldnt be here if it wasnt for her.
Her composure was as stunning as her athleticism.
GIANT KILLERGauff famously beat Venus Williams in her first appearance at Wimbledon, 2019
When Gauff won the US Open, she was four years older and ranked No.
She was a global celebrity whose matches had been watched courtside by Justin Bieber and the Obamas.
But as Gauff quickly made clear, this was the same person.
FAST-FORWARDMiu Miu coat, shirts, skirt, and shoes.
Gauff lay down on the court and covered her face with her hands.
She got up and hugged Sabalenka.
Then she dropped to her knees in the doubles alley, braced herself with her racket, and prayed.
GAME, SET, COCOAltuzarra dress and Chanel sandals.
I dont pray for results, she said during the trophy ceremony.
I just ask that I get the strength to give it my all.
And whatever happens, happens.
She thanked the rest of her team, and everyone else in her box.
She thanked her grandparents.
She thanked her brothers.
She even thanked her doubters.
Honestly, thank you to the people who didnt believe in me, she said.
To those who thought they were putting water on my fire, you were really adding gas to it.
And now Im really burning so bright right now.
Thank you, Billie, for fighting for this, she said loudly into the mic.
To tennis heads, Gauffs triumph was even sweeter for the fact that she had been on defense.
She was just gonnadieto bring one more ball back.
4 who once coached Andre Agassi.
Gilbert is known for emphasizing the psychological aspects of tennis, what he has called the brain game.
His classic book,Winning Ugly,is a field manual for waging mental warfare on the court.
Coco gave me grief about my shoes, he told the group.
Gilbert was wearing a white suit, per the dress code, with sneakers that were mostly black.
Gauff did not approve.
She felt his white pocket square was on point.
But she was not crazy about his belt, which was brown.
She gave me the big two-thumbs-down on my belt, Gilbert told me later.
She said I would have won best-dressed but she was disappointed in my shoes.
I said, Youre right, I should have had white sneakers.
AIR COCOGauffs game can be ultraphysical, like that of a track star doing sprints along the baseline.
Sacai dress and shorts.
The next day, I accompanied Gauff to a beachside media junket near the tournament arena.
Her mood was part pro-athlete-in-media-mode, part sleepy teenager.
Gauff was relaxed and at ease on camera, if keenly aware of her status as a role model.
At one point a journalist suggested she never seemed altogether satisfied with her tennis performance.
I am definitely that key in of player, Gauff said.
Sometimes I do have to remind myself of the things Ive accomplished.
I think, just, my heartyou always want more.
Is it a bit like a drug?
Are you chasing a bit of a high?
That night, Gauff had her first practice session on the stadium court.
Media-mode Gauff was gone, the laid-back lightheartedness replaced by quiet intensity.
Gilbert paced around behind her, muttering things I couldnt hear and clearing away the occasional stray ball.
Gilbert started working with Gauff 42 days before the US Open.
Ill call it turning the dial a little bit on the radio, Gilbert told me.
I felt like there were little, subtle tweaks that were going to make a big difference.
They wanted her to go through people.
I didnt see it that way.
Gilbert felt that Gauff could use her game differently, accent her strengths more.
Her serve, her backhand, herinsanelygreat movement, her defending skills.
He saw room for more tactics and strategy, for more taking advantage of her opponents weaknesses.
Gilbert didnotshare the universal fixation with Gauffs forehand, deemed to be her one weak spot.
Fix her forehand.Its pretty amazing that thats all everybody talks about, he said.
To hear Gilbert tell it, Gauffs kryptonite is not her forehand.
Her kryptonite, if she has one, is her perfectionism.
Gilbert: Coco definitely shares a big-time trait with Andre in that shes a perfectionist.Crazyperfectionist.
Thats probably the thing from early on I noticed instantly.
And I told her, The pursuit of perfection doesnt exist.
It makes you miserable, chasing it.
And youre never satisfied with being good.
Shes just always gotta be better.
Andre was the same.
This whole being-better-than-you-need-to-be costs you a lot of matches.
It was Gauffs dad, Corey, who pushed her to work with Gilbert.
After the meeting at Wimbledon, her mom, Candi, got theWinning Uglyaudiobook and started listening to it.
She liked how practical the guidance was.
I said, This is the part that she needs, Candi told me.
Some of Gilberts observations werent news to Gauffs parents.
The perfectionism thingit had always been there.
Starting from three or four, she tried to win at everything she did, Corey told me.
She was so fixated on the fact that she got one wrong.
To me that was too much of an upsetting moment for her to have, Candi said.
Gilbert can sometimes get through to Gauff where her parents cant.
He says it, and its like, This girls got no chance.
In this respect, Gilbert and others can at times serve as a go-between.
When we give a shot to tell her certain things, its deaf ears sometimes, Candi said.
I cant tell her what to do tennis-wise.
Theres a limit to the amount of direction Gauff will take from Gilbert, too, it seems.
just just stop, Gauff said.
Did you coach Andre?
Gauff likes to say.
When you were coaching Andre, how did he do against Pete?
The tournament opened on a Sunday afternoon.
From the start, the crowd was pulling for Gauff.
But the tennis was soon overshadowed by conditions in the arena.
(She cracked a sly smile.)
The wind eventually destroyed so many umbrellas that the players started requesting towels instead.
(Another smirk.)
The obstacles became so absurd that one website compared the competition to the Fyre Festival.
She complained about the uneven court.
She flung her racket in anger.
And yet Gauff seemed to close out the week in a state of bemused resignation.
It didnt go perfectly, but she did better than last year.
Maybe that was good enough.
Gauff was in head-to-toe New Balance: hot pink sweatshirt, black leggings, black and white low tops.
She had just practiced with Gilbert on her new private court, built the week before.
She wouldnt be driving, however.
One of her agents would drive us.
CHAIN REACTIONGauff wears a Chanel jacket, shorts, belt, and necklaces.
The animals all came from her bedroom.
As a result, her bedroom looks like it belongs to a three-year-old.
We just had family over for Thanksgiving, she explained with a laugh.
My little cousin, shes two, and she was so happy to go in my room.
The next day she came over and she knew exactly where my room was.
She was, like, pointing to my room.
And I was like, Okay, my room is not meant for a 19-year-old.
Its for a baby.
Between Cancun and the start of her preseason training, Gauff took 10 glorious days off.
She went to her little brother Camerons football game.
She tried not to follow too much tennis news.
It was the longest offseason of her pro career.
Id never taken 10 days off before, she told me.
We were now in the back of an SUV.
I think the longest was seven, and the seven was actually after the US Open.
Before then I think the longest was five, and that was when I got my wisdom teeth out.
The park has acquired near-mythical status in Gauffs origin story.
Its coordinates are etched onto the left toe of her signature shoe.
We got out of the car and Gauff showed me around.
Usually wed hit on that court, she said, pointing to a tennis court on our right.
As she spoke, people clocked her presence but kept a respectful distance.
Gauffs roots in Pompey Park, and in Delray in general, run a lot deeper than tennis.
She was the first Black person to go to that school.
She experienced being called all these slurs.
She had to have police escort her into the school.
Gauff also credits her grandma with keeping her grounded.
She would say, I dont care how famous you get.
You still have to do your chores.
That time, Serena gave Gauff some advice.
There is something uncanny about the way Gauff came to defeat Venus at Wimbledon.
How she got a wild card into the qualifier, then was paired against Venus in the draw.
Beating one of her childhood idols required additional mind tricks.
To get to Centre Court, players must walk down a long hall lined with photos of Wimbledons champions.
Shes coming up, like, multiple times, Gauff said.
Andshes walking behind me.
I asked Gauff how she felt about the fact that she played Venus but not Serena.
If I had the perfect world I would have gotten to play both, she said.
But Serena retired and I played Venus twice.
In my perfect world I would have played Venus once and Serena once.
Gauff is glad that, in that moment, she played Venus rather than Serena, though.
I wasnt ready for Serena at that time.
Its like, OK, why didnt you do that sooner?
Thats what you needed to do in that moment.
And yet, among the commentariat, there was a narrative building that Gauff wasnt winning consistently enough.
Gauff and her inner circle describe a period of maturation and constant adjustment.
The pandemic forced the WTA tour to take a five-month hiatus in 2020, for one thing.
But when the tour resumed, she had to play in near-total isolationno crowds, no friends.
Around that time, Gauff started playing doubles regularly with Pegula.
If she doesnt agree with you, shell be like, Okay, but thatsnotwhat you said earlier.
Like, Iheardyou say that.Dontmake stuff up now.
Shell definitely push back on you and its really funny.
Over the 2023 season, Pegula noticed a shift in Gauffs attitude on court.
When Gauff didnt play well, she didnt seem as rocked by it.
She wasnt getting as upset if she missed the ball, or as stressed, Pegula said.
It just seemed like she kind of matured into her game.
There was all this built-up emotion, she says of last summers US Open final.
Im almost there.And then finally I was there.
And I just fell on the floor
Gauff acknowledged that she has been trying to neutralize her perfectionism.
Ive always known I was a perfectionist, she told me.
Its a great thing and also a bad thing.
Even when she wins: Its not like Im saying, Good job, Coco.
Its like, Okay, why didnt you do that sooner?
FAST-FORWARDMiu Miu coat, shirts, skirt, and shoes.
The dissatisfaction never ends, she said.
By theory youre always striving for more, because youre never going to be perfect.
Which will never happen.
Having experienced the downside of this approach, Gauff set about to retrain her mind.
Im trying to do more of, you know, accepting the good shots.
And giving myself as much of a compliment as I do a critique.
Gauff said she was hesitant to hire Gilbert at first because she doesnt like meeting new people.
I know that sounds so wrong.
In a way I dont mind meeting new people on a surface level.
But your coach will eventually know everything about you.
You spend more time with them than you do your family.
Switching coaches is her least favorite process.
And also, he was an older guy, she added.
I didnt know how Id get along with someone in their 60s.
But hes actually pretty hip and pretty young in some ways.
So it ended up being a good decision, obviously.
Gilbert is helping her to lighten up.
And to realize that: Life is never ever that serious, at least not on the tennis court.
On the tennis court its never ever that serious.
I think Ive just learned that from observing him.
A week after he joined her team, she won her fourth WTA title, in Washington, DC.
Later that month, she won her fifth, in Cincinnati.
And we all know what happened in New York.
This can be less true for a player with more internal focus (Nadal, say).
If something breaks their concentration, they might have a harder time getting it back.
External focus isnt necessarily better for everyone, she said, but it works better for her.
External focus helps her to take a step back.
Maybe Ill notice a bird or something, and its like,Look at that.
I want to win more so I can get as close to the feeling.
I told my momI literally said, It was an addictive feeling.
I didnt want the moment to get away from me.
If you look at my face Im just stoic.
There was all this built-up emotion.Im almost there.
Im almost there.And then finally I was there.
And I just fell on the floor.
The euphoria she felt is still indescribable.
That was a feeling Ill never be able to replicate no matter how many more matches I win.
I want to win more so I can get as close to the feeling.
I told my momI literally said, It was an addictive feeling.
As soon as I felt that, I wanted to refeel it again.
I said, Now I see how people get addicted to drugs.
That feeling was a drug.
Gauff always thought shed win her first Grand Slam at the French Open.
Everyone always told her she was better on clay.
Now she knows she can win in New York.
I just feel like everything that you go through builds to something, she said.
Maybe my something wasnt even that.
Maybe God has bigger plans in store for me.
She would spend much of that time with Gilbert.
They were already getting to know each other better.
I think the Eagles artists, the band?
she said when I asked what music.
And a little bit of Metallica.
Yeah, some rock stuff.
She had not stopped teasing him, however.
Brad mentions like four or five times a week that he coached Andre.
So every now and then Ill be like: Oh, really?
How do you know him?
GAME, SET, COCOAltuzarra dress and Chanel sandals.
Maybe she would attend more of their games, or whoop them at ping-pong.
Gilbert had observed that the Gauff family culture is extremely competitive.
But I think if theyre playing a game of some sort, she wants to crush them.
Gauff confirmed this: I dont taunt or bully or cheat.
But if they ask me to go easy, I wont.
As it turns out, she would spend a couple of days with Andy Roddick too.
It seemed to be working.
(Gauff will turn 20 in March.)
It was just decision-making and experience.
Did she have her sights set on a particular Slam?
Paris is my favorite city, so I do want to have a go at win there.
That would be special.
But obviously if its not Roland Garros, Id be very happy to win Wimbledon or the US Open.
In this story: hair, Lacy Redway; makeup, Raisa Flowers.
The April issue featuring Coco is here.
