Coco Gauff recently revisited her maiden face-to-face encounter with her childhood idol, the legendary Serena Williams. According to Gauff, at the time, the moment felt surreal.
The current World No. 3 in women’s singles tennis, in a recent interview with Forbes on the back of her being named in the iconic business magazine’s 2025 ’30 Under 30′ sports list, recalled the moment. Around ten years back, Delta Air Lines picked Gauff to act in a commercial as a young Serena Williams. During the shoot, Gauff, still a preteen at the time, met Williams and was understandably starstruck.
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“I just remember her walking by, and it just felt not real. You could have told me that was Jesus,” the two-time singles Major champion told Forbes.
Time and again in the past, Coco Gauff has voiced the profound impact Serena Williams had on her and others. Back in 2022, shortly after securing qualification for the year-end WTA Finals, Gauff attended a press conference. Here, she candidly told reporters about not putting pressure on herself to match Williams’ incredible tally of 23 singles Major titles, which is still an Open Era record in women’s tennis.
“I think her legacy is something that is going to be hard for anyone to carry out, so I’m not going to place that pressure on myself. Also, I mean, her legacy no matter if someone does get to – she has 23 – if someone gets to 23 again, I still think that her legacy will stand alone on its own. So it’s not something that I feel pressure to fulfill,” Coco Gauff said during a press conference at the 2022 Guadalajara Open.
“Serena Williams is obviously the greatest” – Coco Gauff
Following Coco Gauff’s disappointing end to the 2025 tennis season with an early exit from the year-end WTA Finals, TNT Sports posted a video of the American naming Serena Williams as the greatest women’s tennis player of all time. While the 21-year-old acknowledged the achievements of the likes of Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Venus Williams in the video, she couldn’t pick any of them above Serena Williams.
Gauff said:
“Chris Evert is up there, Martina Navratilova for sure, and then Steffi Graf. I feel like I have to put Venus up there, and then number one for me, that’s the only, this is the only position that’s not interchangeable is for sure Serena Williams. I think that she’s obviously the greatest, and I think that her mindset, her athletic ability, her power, her personality and like presence that she led in the sport, I think is very inspiring, so to me that’s why she’s my favorite.”
Coco Gauff is set to return to competitive action in the 2026 season beginning with the United Cup, where she is slated to team up with compatriot Taylor Fritz for Team USA.
Edited by Sudipto Pati
