Getty Image / Tim Clayton
It’s highly doubtful, unless you got married or had the birth of your child, that you had a better last six week than American tennis sensation Coco Gauff. Coco went through the North American hard court season on fire, won the US Open on Saturday in a three-set classic, and is mucking it up with some of the NFL’s brightest stars Sunday before the Giants-Cowboys Sunday Night Football game.
Coco has been in the limelight since she was 15, when in 2019 she broke on to the scene in a big way by getting to the fourth round at Wimbledon and the third round at the US Open. She’s been steadily climbing the rankings since, and made the French Open final last year.
But, her big breakthrough came this summer. After a disappointing first three grand slams abroad to start the year, she came home to the USA and won the WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati, which is one of the biggest non-slams of the year. And, right after, she came to Flushing, Queens, and made her way through a grueling bracket and beat new world-number-one Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets on Saturday. Coco Gauff is the youngest US Open winner since Serena Williams also won at 19.
What does a newly-crowned 19-year-old tennis champion do the day after she’s won a $3 million dollar prize? Hang out with NFL players, apparently.
Gauff was seen on the field before the big Cowboys-Giants game on Sunday Night Football, and here she is with New York Giants star running back Saquon Barkley. That’s a lot of freak athleticism in one picture, that’s for sure.
Coco Gauff is ready for Sunday Night! pic.twitter.com/rIMqD1h8Lc
— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) September 10, 2023
Gauff will wake up on Monday as the world’s third-ranked singles player and part of the top-ranked doubles team alongside the daughter of Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula, Jess Pegula.