Coco Gauff’s parents, Candi and Corey, played a major part in her rise to the top in tennis and they continue to be ever-present figures in the young star’s career.
From uprooting the family and giving up their full-time jobs to help Coco to being there when their daughter followed in her idols Venus and Serena Williams’ footsteps by becoming a Grand Slam winner at the 2023 US Open when she was just 19 years old.
“Thank you, first, to my parents. Today was the first time I’ve ever seen my dad cry,” Coco said after her moment of glory at Flushing Meadows.
“Thank you guys, you believed in me from the beginning. My dad took me to this tournament. [I watched] Venus and Serena compete, so it’s really incredible to be on this stage.”
But four years before that magical title, a young Coco made history when she became the youngest player to qualify for Wimbledon i the Open Era as she was just 15 years and three months.
And the self-belief was instilled in her from a young age as she said revealed after reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon, beating her idol Venus en route.
“My dad told me that I could do this when I was eight,” Gauff said. “Obviously you never believe it. I’m still, like, not 100% confident. But you have to just say things. You never know what happens.”
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Corey later told Good Morning America how the Williams sisters inspired a young Coco, saying: “We hadn’t seen many African-American women in the sport, so when they started winning and having success and trailblazing.
“Some of the challenges that they went through made it a lot easier to get into the sport and it allowed us to be a lot more confident about choosing [tennis].”
But who are Candi and Corey Gauff?
Coco Gauff – or Cori Dionne Gauff as she was christened – was born on March 13, 2004 to Candi and Corey Gauff. The Gauffs also have two sons, Cameron and Codey Gauff, who are both younger than Coco.
Candi – née Odom – was born on November 30, 1970 in Florida in the United States while Corey Darnell Mathias Gauff is a year older as he was born on August 16, 1971, also in Florida.
Both Candi and Corey have sporting backgrounds as the former was gymnast and track-and-field star at university and Corey was a state basketball player.
They tied the knot in January 13, 2001 and just over three years later, Coco arrived.
Having sporting parents certainly played a big role in Coco’s career with her father telling the New York Times: “I think it helps parents when they have played as high as college or even pro.
“You better understand the process, and so you don’t get too jittery about it. You don’t feel like you’re running out of time, so you are not rushed. You kind of meet your kid where they are at.”
After college, Corey worked in health care and Candi in education and they were initially based in Atlanta, but both gave up their jobs to focus on their daughter’s sporting career as they relocated back to Florida.
They moved in with Candi’s parents to help fund Coco’s tennis dream and Corey took over as his daughter’s full-time coach and Candi later took care of her homeschooling as they went from a “single-income family” to a “no-income family”, according to Corey.
“[Corey] said to me, he was like, ‘If we’re gonna do this, she’s gonna have to homeschool,’” Candi told Sun Sentinel in 2018. “And that meant that was my last year teaching. And I said, ‘OK, well, give it a year.’ And we moved into my parents’ home and came here.”
It all started off well in terms of being coached by her father, but Coco admitted things were not always straightforward.
“When we were younger, it was pretty easy,” she said. “And then when I turned, I would say, 12 or 13, we used to argue, because he used to be annoying because he would bring tennis home, and he’s always around me. So now we talked, and we understand each other now more.”
Candi added to Sun Sentinel: “There was a breaking point, and I stopped it and went to the center of the court and said, ‘This is Switzerland. This is where, if you have a problem, you come here and discuss it.”
And nearly six years after Coco’s breakthrough at Wimbledon, they still discuss every detail although her parents’ roles are slightly different as they are more in the background in terms of her coaching team, but they still regularly travel with their daughter to tournaments.
With Coco Gauff now one of the top players in the world, Candi and Corey Gauff have gone from a “no-income family” to parents of a multimillionaire as their daughter has already earned $24,368,100 (and counting) in career prize money and probably double that in sponsorship deals.
The post Who are Coco Gauff’s parents? Candi and Corey moved back in with parents to fund Coco’s dream appeared first on Tennis365.
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