Coco Gauff Enters U.S. Open Final on the Verge of Superstardom – Sportico.com – MyCyberBase

The summer of Coco continues.

Coco Gauff defeated Karolina Muchova in straight sets Thursday night to become the youngest U.S. Open finalist since her idol, Serena Williams, in 2001. It marked Gauff’s 17th win in her last 18 matches since a first-round loss at Wimbledon. The victories included the two biggest titles of her career at Cincinnati and the Citi Open in Washington, D.C.

The 19-year-old American had the crowd behind her against Muchova in a match that featured a 50-minute delay triggered by climate change activists, including one who glued his feet to the ground. The sixth-ranked Gauff, who lost her only previous Grand Slam final at last year’s French Open, will face second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka in Saturday’s final. Sabalenka won the Australian Open in January and is guaranteed to move up to the No. 1 ranking after the Open.

“I really believe that now I have the maturity and ability to do it,” Gauff said in her post-match press conference. “Regardless of what happens on Saturday, I’m really proud of how I have been handling the last few weeks.”

Gauff has been tabbed as the next great American tennis player for several years. At 13, she became the youngest ever to reach the U.S. Open girl’s final. She won her first career junior Slam title at the French Open in 2018. She was the youngest junior world girl’s No. 1 in history.

Marketers flocked to Gauff even though her tournament schedule was limited before she turned 18 due to the WTA Tour’s age-eligibility rules. By her 15th birthday, she already had multiyear agreements with racket maker Head, Italian pasta giant Barilla and New Balance, which won a bidding war with Nike. Those three partners are still in place.

Gauff was an early client of TEAM8, the boutique sports agency founded by Tony Godsick and his longtime client Roger Federer—20-year-old Open semifinalist Ben Shelton is the only other active athlete on the TEAM8 roster.

The Federer connection off the court can be seen with both young American stars. Barilla signed a five-year deal with Federer in 2017 before adding Gauff two years later. Skier Mikaela Shiffrin is the brand’s only other current endorser among athletes. On Holding, the Swiss running brand Federer helped turbocharge when he invested in the company and became a product endorser in 2019, signed Shelton and Iga Swiatek this year as its first two tennis ambassadors.

Gauff added a trio of new sponsors this year in Bose, UPS and accounting firm Baker Tilly. In 2022, New Balance re-did her contract and made it one of the richest in the women’s game with an extension that runs for more than five years. The Boston-based brand launched a signature shoe for Gauff last year; she is the only active player with a signature tennis sneaker across all brands. Gauff also has a deal with Rolex.

Tennis endorsement contracts are layered with bonuses for on-court performance and world rankings. A win on Saturday would be worth $3 million in prize money and seven figures in sponsor bonuses. There are also retainer escalators in the case of Grand Slam wins. Gauff will easily clear $10 million from sponsors in 2023. Gauff had won $5.5 million in career prize money entering 2023, but a victory Saturday would push that total to $11 million.

Gauff’s ascension presents an incredible opportunity off the court as the top American player. She checks all the marketing boxes with her performance, personality and catchy nickname—her birth name is Cori. Serena Williams has been the sport’s dominant presence on and off the court for the past two decades but hung up her racket for good last year. Serena and her sister Venus combined for 30 Grand Slam singles titles, plus 14 doubles majors together, while every other American—male and female—has won two Slams since Andy Roddick’s 2003 U.S. Open win.

Gauff isn’t satisfied with just reaching the final. As she told fans after beating Muchova, “Job’s not done.”