Tennis phenom Coco Gauff is known for becoming the first American teenager to win the U.S. Open in nearly a quarter century, when she beat Venus Williams at just 15 years old, and for her love of fruit. In 2023, the internet began talking about her shift snack after she accompanied herself throughout the U.S. Open with a homemade fruit salad in a plain plastic container. But Gauff’s love of fruit began as a child, when she would beat the sweltering heat during long summer days while training at a tennis academy in Florida.
“We had a lot of coconut trees around my house, so I was always drinking coconut water straight from the coconut,” Gauff, now 20, told Elite Daily. “My grandmother had a lot of mango trees near her house, so I would pick mangoes and buy bananas and pineapples… that’s kind of how it all started.”
Now, the athlete has partnered with Naked to produce a line of colorful, produce-based smoothies, and as the company’s first chief smoothie officer, Gauff is endorsing Naked’s new low-sugar Berrylicious smoothie, which is packed with one of her favorite fruits (grapes) and her favorite color (purple).
As she prepares for the 2024 Paris Olympics — her first after missing the 2021 Tokyo Olympics due to a positive COVID-19 test — the star spoke to Elite Daily about her quest to meditate more, her love of anime, how her activist grandmother inspires her confidence off the court, and more.
Elite Daily: I’d love to hear about your health habits leading up to the Olympics. How do you stay healthy? How do you pamper yourself?
Coco Gauff: Looking good makes you feel good. I just got my hair and nails done yesterday and I truly feel like a new person. I always like to get a fresh start with a fresh hairstyle.
I also love to walk around the cities I’m in and just people watch. If there’s a garden or park nearby, I like to be outside in nature. I feel like it makes me happy.
ED: That’s so true. Are there any unusual wellness trends you’ve tried recently, on TikTok or elsewhere?
CG: Not really, because there’s so much going on. I try a lot of skincare products and try to find a routine, but I’m always changing it.
I am also trying to meditate more. Sometimes it is hard for me to sit still because I am impatient. But I always tend to just move around, so I try to learn to calm myself down and take deep breaths and stay in the moment.
I’ve never felt uncomfortable helping to raise awareness about issues that are difficult to talk about and that aren’t often talked about in the tennis world.
ED: How are you training for the Olympics?
CGUnfortunately, the Olympics come at a strange time for us, right after the grass season and right before the hard court season, and it’s on clay, so we don’t have much time to train.
But until then, I’m just trying to enjoy the process. I know sometimes it can be result-driven, but this time I’m like, “OK, I’m probably not going to go through this again for the next four years, so I’m just going to really enjoy it and look at it as a one-time thing.”
ED: Watching anime has always been part of your pre-competition routine. Is that something you plan to incorporate into your pre-competition routine at the Olympics?
CG: Yes, actually I am watching it. Jujutsu Kaisen Right now, so I think it will be done just before the Olympics start. It’s inspired by the characters.
ED: Do you have any superstitions on or off the court?
CG: I always take six, sometimes seven, rackets to the court, but sometimes I don’t have enough. It’s not a superstition, I treat it like a routine.
I also always eat fruit. When we’re stressed, our nervous system can produce more energy than normal. Some people get cramps because of stress, so I eat fruit to combat that.
ED: How do you unwind at the end of the day?
CG: I like to do my skincare and then talk with friends, and the last thing I do before going to bed is read.
ED: Are you reading any good books at the moment?
CG: I am reading Iron Flame Written by Rebecca Yaros. A fictional dragon dystopian style book.
ED: Your grandmother was an activist and you’ve been outspoken on a lot of issues. The cause you believe inHow do you maintain your confidence?
CG: That’s something that was always instilled in me by my grandmother and my parents, and I’ve never felt uncomfortable helping to raise awareness about issues that are hard to talk about or that aren’t talked about enough in the tennis world.
As a black woman, I feel like it’s almost disrespectful to those who fought so hard to give me the life I have and not acknowledge the privilege I have and use it. Knowing all that my grandmother went through, I think it’s important for me to preserve her legacy and the legacy of people of her generation. I want to make the world a better place and continue to make an impact, especially off the court.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
