Coco Gauff wished her friend and fellow tennis player Baylen Brown on her 20th birthday. Gauff also shared a heartfelt note calling her a “beautiful soul” and “queen.”
Brown, who is currently active on the ITF circuit, has a career-high junior ranking of 696 and won two junior doubles titles in 2021 at J4 Cairo and J5 Baku. She also has a WTA doubles ranking of 960, with a career-best of 876.
Gauff, who is ranked No. 2 in the World in singles and No. 12 in doubles, has had a pretty decent 2024 season so far. She began her season with a title in the ASB Classic in Auckland and semifinal appearances in the Australian Open, the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, and the Italian Open. Additionally, she also made the quarterfinals in the Dubai Tennis Championships and Stuttgart Open.
Gauff took to her Instagram story on Saturday, June 15, to share a picture of her and Brown smiling and hanging out together.
“Happy Birthday to this beautiful soul. I love you queen,” Gauff wrote.
At the French Open, Gauff defeated Julia Avdeeva, Tamara Zidansek, 30th seed Dayana Yastremska, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, and eighth seed Ons Jabeur, before losing to the World No. 1 and defending champion Iga Swiatek 6-2, 6-4. Swiatek went on to win her third consecutive French Open title, beating Jasmine Paolini in the final.
The 20-year-old also entered the doubles draw with Czech Republic’s Katerina Siniakova, who has won seven Grand Slam doubles titles.
The pair stormed through the draw, beating Xu Yifan and Anna Danilina, Miriam Kolodziejova and Anna Siskova, Wang Xinyu and Ena Shibahara, Nadiia Kichenok and Miyo Kato, Desirae Krawczyk and Caroline Dolehide, and finally Jasmine Paolini and Sara Errani in the final, 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Coco Gauff will kick off her grass-court campaign at the 2024 ecotrans Ladies Open in Berlin
Coco Gauff is set to face either Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia or Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round of the ecotrans Ladies Open, a WTA 500 grass-court tournament in Berlin.
Gauff, who is the top seed and World No. 2, received a bye in the first round of the tournament which will run from June 17 to 23 and is a key warm-up event for the Wimbledon Championships, which begins on July 1.
Gauff, who is about to make her third appearance in Berlin, reached the semifinals in her 2022 debut. The American defeated Ann Li, Wang Xinyu, and Karolina Pliskova in straight sets en route to the last four, where she lost 7-6(4), 6-2 to eventual champion Ons Jabeur. The following year, Gauff made it to the Round of 16, before losing 6-4, 6-0 to Alexandrova.