LEXINGTON, Ky. _ The official WTA bio for Coco Gauff includes some of your normal teenage traits.
Gauff, it reads, enjoys hanging out with her family, watching superhero movies and making TikTok videos. "Doesn't have any pets," the bio continues, "but has been trying to convince her mom to get a dog."
Typical 16-year-old stuff, right?
Well, Gauff is far from typical, as the past several months have clearly shown.
Her future looks even brighter.
Gauff came to central Kentucky this week to play in the Top Seed Open, the first WTA event in the United States since the COVID-19 shutdown, and she's already well on her way to becoming one of the sport's biggest stars.
Last summer _ just a few months after turning 15 years old _ Gauff upset tennis legend Venus Williams in the first round at Wimbledon, becoming the youngest player to win a singles match at the Grand Slam event since Jennifer Capriati in 1991. She advanced all the way to the round of 16 in that major.
A few months after that, she won the Linz Open in Australia, becoming the youngest player to win a WTA singles title in 15 years. And earlier this year, still a few weeks shy of her 16th birthday, Gauff advanced to the round of 16 in the Australian Open _ the only major played in 2020 to date _ defeating No. 3 seed Naomi Osaka in the process.
She turned 16 right around the time the sports world shut down. (Her birthday was actually two days after the Jazz-Thunder NBA game that marked the domino effect of cancellations across American sports).
Gauff, like just about every other athlete, was relegated to the bench for the next several months. It wasn't all bad.
"Obviously I miss competing and I miss playing, but I think it was a good little break for me, because I was able to train," she said this week. "I still consider myself in the development stage. So having those months off to work on certain stuff definitely helped me. Plus I got to be home and be with my brothers and my family _ that was probably the longest I've been home in a long time. But I'm excited to get back competing. I definitely miss being on the court."
The Top Seed Open in Nicholasville marks Gauff's return to competitive tennis and a tune-up for the U.S. Open later this month. Her latest big upset came Wednesday afternoon, when she defeated No. 2-seeded Aryna Sabalenka _ the No. 11 player in the world rankings _ 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
It was the third victory over a top 15 player in her young career and will push her into the top 50 of the WTA singles rankings.
Gauff _ positioned at No. 53 in those rankings coming into the week _ is still in the learning process. She's also finding out more about herself off the court. The past few months provided more evidence of that.
On May 28 _ three days after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police _ Gauff tweeted: "I promise to always use my platform to help make the world a better place."
She's followed through on that pledge, helping to raise awareness on social justice issues for her social media followers that number in the hundreds of thousands, as well as her fellow players on tour.
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