Coco Gauff's remarkable rise from World No. 200 to World No. 2 in 5 years: A timeline of the American's surge
Coco Gauff has had a short but impressive career already, with seven singles titles to her name. This includes a Grand Slam and a Masters 1000 title, among others.
The American has also had some impressive results on the doubles circuit, with eight titles to her name, including three at the WTA 1000 level. She has also reached three Grand Slam doubles finals.
Gauff's singles journey at French Open 2024 ended in the semifinals, as she lost 6-2, 6-4 to Iga Swiatek. This was the third year in a row when the Pole beat the American, having previously beaten her in the 2022 final and the 2023 quarterfinals.
However, the run at Roland Garros was enough to see Coco Gauff attain a new career-high ranking of World No. 2, surpassing Aryna Sabalenka, who was ousted in the quarterfinals by Mirra Andreeva.
The American broke into the Top 200 of the WTA rankings in 2019 when she was just 15 years old. This happened after a run to the fourth round of the Wimbledon Championships that year, when she stunned five-time champion Venus Williams in the first round.
A few months after her Wimbledon run, Coco Gauff won her maiden WTA singles title in Linz after having to qualify for the main draw. She beat Stefanie Voegele, Kateryna Baindl, top seed Kiki Bertens and Andrea Petkovic before triumphing over Jelena Ostapenko in the final.
Gauff broke into the Top 100 of the WTA rankings after this win and ended 2019 as the World No. 68 after starting as the World No. 686.
2020 wasn't a particularly impressive year for the then-teenager but she managed to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open and the semifinals of the Top Seed Open. She thus broke into the Top 50 of the WTA rankings and ended the year as the World No. 47.
2021 was an important year for Coco Gauff as she had some impressive results throughout the season. She reached her maiden WTA 1000 semifinal at Rome, beating two Top-10 players in Aryna Sabalenka and then World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty (who retired due to injured) in the process.
Gauff's only title that year came at the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma and she followed this by reaching her maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal at the French Open. She went on to reach her first Major final of any kind in the women's doubles event at that year's US Open. Gauff eventually entered the Top 20 of the WTA rankings in 2021 and ended the season as the World No. 19
Coco Gauff reached her maiden Grand Slam final and entered the Top 5 in 2022
2022 was an incredible year for Coco Gauff as she had quite a few accomplishments, the most notable of which was reaching her maiden Grand Slam singles final at the French Open. The American also reached the doubles final at the Paris Major but ended up losing both.
Further impressive performances saw Gauff enter the Top 10 of the WTA rankings after her quarterfinal run at the US Open. That year, she also became the doubles World No. 1. Gauff subsequently broke into the Top 5 and finished the year ranked fourth in the world.
Coco Gauff enjoyed her best season so far in 2023
2023 has so far been the best year of Coco Gauff's career by some distance. She did not have the most impressive first half of the season, with her best being a quarterfinal run at the French Open. The American then suffered a first-round exit at Wimbledon.
However, the second half of the season saw Brad Gilbert join her team and the results rose to another level for Coco Gauff. She won her first WTA 500 title at the Citi Open, which was followed by a maiden WTA 1000 triumph in Cincinnati.
Gauff entered the US Open with high hopes and reached the final with wins over Laura Siegemund, Mirra Andreeva, Elise Mertens, Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Ostapenko and Karolina Muchova. Here, she faced Aryna Sabalenka and came back from a set down to win her maiden Grand Slam singles title.
Gauff has had a prett good 2024 season so far, with 30 wins out of 39 matches, winning the ASB Classic. She has had two Grand Slam semifinal runs while reaching the last four of two WTA 1000 tournaments,