Cori "Coco" Gauff returns the ball against Caty McNally during their girls' singles final match of the French Open tennis tournament in 2018. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)ASSOCIATED PRESS
Most 15-year-old girls are busy with their freshman year in high school, navigating classes and maybe looking to make a school sports team. But Cori “Coco” Gauff is not your typical teen. The American junior tennis player has been breaking boundaries since she won a prominent national tennis event at age 8.
Gauff, who turned 15 last week, takes the court today in the opening round of the Miami Open, where she received a wild card entry into the newly imagined tournament taking place for the first time at the Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium.
Miami will be Gauff’s first event with her new endorsement partner, Barilla Group. The Italian pasta giant will be featured on Gauff’s shirt in a “patch” deal. The multi-year agreement follows long-term deals signed at the end of last year with New Balance and the racket maker Head. Boston-based New Balance secured Gauff’s signature after a bidding war with Nike.
Tennis deals are layered with performance bonuses on top of the base guarantees, but Gauff is on track to earn at least $1 million in 2019 from the trio of endorsements. The total ranks in the top 10 among all female tennis players and is a massive haul for a player who has yet to win a match above the WTA Tour’s ITF developmental circuit.
The companies see the potential for Gauff to one day fill the void in American tennis that will open up when the sport’s two dominant figures of the past two decades, Serena and Venus Williams, finally hang up their rackets. Gauff checks all the marketing boxes with her performance, personality and catchy nickname. Now she needs to prove it on the court at the next level to become the future of women's tennis.
Gauff’s résumé is impressive. At 13 she became the youngest ever to reach the U.S. Open girl’s final in 2017. She captured her first career junior Grand Slam title at the French Open last year. She was the youngest junior world girl’s No. 1 in history.
But Gauff will not be playing a full WTA schedule anytime soon. Tennis has an age-eligibility rule, limiting the number of tournaments players can enter before they turn 18. The rule was put in place to prevent early burnout after several high-profile cases, notably Jennifer Capriati, who turned pro at 13. A 15-year-old may play up to 10 pro events.
Gauff’s marketing agent is Alessandro Barel Di Sant Albano, who is part of TEAM8, the boutique agency founded by Roger Federer and his longtime agent, Tony Godsick. TEAM8 only has five players on its roster, so Gauff’s future is a major focus for the firm.
The connections of TEAM8 paid off with the Barilla deal. The 141-year-old brand has only two individual athletes in its endorsement stable, Federer and ski champion Mikaela Shiffrin. Federer signed a deal last year with Barilla worth as much as $40 million, according to sources. Federer has arguably the strongest endorsement portfolio among all celebrities, thanks to long-term deals with global brands like Uniqlo, Mercedes-Benz, Credit Suisse, Rolex and Wilson.
Gauff was raised in Delray Beach, Florida, and her parents passed along their athletic genes. Her father, Corey, played basketball at Georgia State, while her mother, Candi, was a track star at Florida State. Candi is in charge of home schooling Coco.
Delray is a short drive south of Palm Beach Gardens, home of Serena Williams, who Gauff says is her idol. Gauff has worked several times with Williams’ long-time coach Patrick Mouratoglou.
Williams was the world's highest-paid female athlete the past two years, earning $18 million off the court in 2018 from her deep endorsement portfolio. Gauff has a long way to go to catch Serena on and off the court, but she is dreaming big. Gauff laid out her goals in a 2017 ESPN profile: “I want to be the greatest of all time.”
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