Behind Every Grand Slam: Coco Gauff’s Heart-breaking Confessions About Love, Loss, and the Man Who Keeps Her Strong

At just 21, Coco Gauff has already collected two Grand Slam titles, a U.S. Open crown in 2023 and the French Open in 2025, yet the loudest roar of her young career might have come from the quietest place: her heart.

In a raw, tear-streaked interview with Vogue published on the eve of the 2025 WTA Finals, the world No. 1 opened up like never before about the private toll of greatness, the grief that still ambushes her on court, and the one man who has become her emotional anchor through it all.

“I cry after almost every match now,” Gauff admitted, voice cracking. “People think it’s because I’m overwhelmed by winning. Most of the time it’s because I’m overwhelmed by missing my grandfather.”

Corey Gauff, her father’s father, passed away in February 2024 after a long battle with cancer. He was the man who first put a racket in five-year-old Coco’s hand in the public parks of Delray Beach, the one who told her, “You’re going to be No. 1 in the world one day,” when most adults laughed at the idea. He never got to see her hold the Daphne Akhurst or Suzanne Lenglen trophies.

“Every time I lift a trophy, I look up and I still expect to see him in the box,” she said. “When he’s not there, it hits me all over again. I’m not crying because I won. I’m crying because the person who believed in me first isn’t here to see it.”

But amid the grief, Gauff revealed something the tennis world had only whispered about: a love story that has quietly kept her standing when everything else felt like it was crumbling.

His name is still rarely spoken publicly, but those close to the Gauff camp confirm he is a 23-year-old American law student she met through mutual friends at a charity event in Miami in late 2023. They kept things private for nearly two years, partly because Coco’s team feared the spotlight would overwhelm a normal relationship, and partly because she wasn’t ready to share the one part of her life that felt completely hers.

“He’s the only person who has ever seen me completely break down and not try to fix me,” she told Vogue. “After I lost in the fourth round at Wimbledon last year, I sat in the locker-room showers for two hours. He just sat outside the door and waited. Didn’t say a word. When I finally came out, he handed me a towel and said, ‘I’m proud of you anyway.’ I knew right then I was going to marry him one day.”

She laughed through tears recounting the memory. “I haven’t even told him that part yet. Don’t print that. Wait… actually, go ahead. He’ll find out when everyone else does.”

The relationship, she says, has taught her the difference between loneliness at the top and true partnership. “Tennis is selfish,” Gauff explained. “It demands everything. I used to think love would take something away from the game. Turns out it gives me something to protect it with.”

Her boyfriend travels with her when law-school exams allow, sits in the very back rows of player boxes wearing nondescript caps, and has never once posted about her on social media. When photographers caught them holding hands leaving a Paris restaurant after her Roland-Garros triumph, he instinctively shielded her face with his jacket, an act that made Coco fall “a little harder.”

“He doesn’t care about the trophies,” she said softly. “He cares about the girl who still sleeps with the stuffed animals and cries during Pixar movies. That’s who he fell in love with. Not world No. 1. Not Nike’s billion-dollar face. Just… me.”

As for marriage and children, questions that follow every young female champion like a second serve, Gauff was unapologetic: “I want it all. I want the career, the Slam count, the records. And I want the husband, the babies, the minivan one day. People act like I have to choose. Watch me prove them wrong.”

She ended the interview with a message to every young girl reading: “You’re allowed to be a masterpiece and a work in progress at the same time. You’re allowed to be the best in the world and still need someone to hold you when it hurts. Strength isn’t pretending you don’t break. It’s letting the right person see the pieces.”

Six months after her grandfather’s death, Coco Gauff is still learning how to win without him watching. But for the first time, she’s not doing it alone.

Behind every thunderous forehand, every tearful on-court interview, every champion’s roar, there is now a quiet law student in the shadows, handing her a towel and reminding her who she is when the world only sees what she does.

And that, more than any Grand Slam, might be the greatest love story tennis has ever seen.