Coco Gauff doesn’t compete under her birth name, and it can cause issues with her travel and accommodation arrangements ahead of tournaments. The blockbuster tennis star is one of the favourites to win Wimbledon this year after defeating Aryna Sabalenka in the French Open final three weeks ago.
Gauff burst onto the tennis scene as a teenager and reached the fourth round of Wimbledon in her debut at the All England Club six years ago at the age of 15. She reached her first Grand Slam final in 2022 at the French Open before tasting her maiden success in a Major at the US Open the following year. She is yet to go beyond the fourth round at SW19 but will be looking to change that this year, with her opening clash at the 2025 edition of Wimbledon coming against Dayana Yastremska.
Gauff’s first name is Cori, and that’s the name that features on her official identification documents.
Meanwhile, her father goes by the name of Corey. And discussing her reasons for using the name Coco during an interview last year, the 21-year-old explained: “My dad’s name is Corey. And so I guess, you know, they didn’t want me to get my dad and me confused when my mum is like yelling at one of us in the house.
“With Coco there are two stories. My aunt says she came up with calling me Coco. But then my dad said, when he was younger people used to call me Co. Then he was like, ‘I’ll call my daughter Coco.’
“I don’t know which story is actually true, but they both get pretty bad if I don’t say both of them. I just say that.”
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The American then explained how the name change can cause issues as she added: “Every time I check into hotels or [with] people at the airport, they look at my ID.
“Obviously the airport you book under your real name, but the person sometimes will recognise me and they’ll be like, ‘Wait, are you Coco?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s just a nickname. I’m not somebody that looks like her.’
“In the hotel, sometimes [they’re] like, ‘Well, we don’t have your room.’ I’m like, ‘It’s probably under Coco, not Cori.’ And then they’ll do that.”
Gauff is currently ranked at No. 2 in the world and has already won 10 singles titles in her career.
After her French Open triumph, she jokingly told her social media followers it should be illegal to go out partying after winning a sporting event.
And she then admitted that she was trying to forget about her victory to ensure she was focused on upcoming tournaments.
Content Source: www.express.co.uk