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4 hours ago
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NEED TO KNOW
- Corey Gauff doesn't sit in her player's box during her matches
- Coco Gauff's father listens to music and paces behind the scenes during her matches, after she began winning in 2023
- The father of three is superstitious, Coco told TNT during her French Open run
Corey Gauff wasn’t in the player's box the moment his daughter Coco won the French Open — and the family likes it that way!
While on the Today show on Monday, June 9, the former college basketball player shared his own strategy for how he “watches” Coco play, and it involves music and wandering the hallways of various stadiums.
“I might be listening to gospel music, hype music, just trying to take my mind mentally off of the moment, 'cause then I get nervous and I feel like she might feel my nervousness,” Corey told co-host Craig Melvin, after he was asked what he was listening to on his earbuds.
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After Coco clinched the match, dropping to the clay in elation, cameras caught her “very proud” father rushing back to her box to celebrate.
Andy Cheung/Getty
For the father of three, his method is working, Coco said in an interview on TNT during her French Open run.
“He has some reactions where if I look in the box I want positivity and I will see him go like this [head in hand] or [slap his thigh],” Gauff, 21, said. “He does not mean it. So after Wimbledon I lost first round [in 2023] and was like, ‘Okay dad, we both agreed that you shouldn’t sit in the box. We can go at it, because I just can’t with the reactions.’ ”
The world No. 2 went on a tear after her father stepped away as her coach after Wimbledon of that year, and it was decided that they should keep the status quo.
“He is a kind of superstitious guy so he was like, ‘Okay whatever!’ ” Coco added, referring to her wins that year in D.C., Cincinnati and at the US Open.
At the latter, where Gauff upset Aryna Sabalenka in three sets, Corey did laps around the stadium to calm his nerves, his daughter said at the time.
On Saturday, as the family reunited in the box following Coco’s win, Corey resumed dad duty, using a towel to wipe off her back and face, which had received a fine dusting of Roland-Garros' iconic clay after Coco fell to the ground.
“I don’t know where he got the towel from,” Coco joked on Today. “He must have known that it was going to happen.”
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