Coco Gauff shares endearing identical message about her and close friend Jalen Sera's Miami Open experiences
Coco Gauff has shared an endearing collection of images identical to her actor friend Jalen Sera's Instagram post featuring him in Miami. She is emerging from a disappointing showing at this week's Miami Open, where she was beaten in the Round of 16 by Magda Linette, who is ranked 33 places below her by the WTA.
Sera is an up-and-coming actor from Florida, best known for the TV mini-series "Honest T". While the World No. 3 was born in Atlanta, Georgia, she moved back to Delray Beach, Florida, at age 7, where she immediately enrolled in the New Generation Tennis Academy in Sarasota. Miami is familiar territory for both.
Sera wrote in his caption:
"Soflooo 🌊🌴☀️🎾🥞🐈💚"
Gauff took advantage of her early exit from the Miami Open to share images of her own Miami outing two hours later, captioned:
"Fever dream"
Gauff also commented on Sera's images:
"Flawdaaa"
Gauff moved away from Florida at age 10. She began training at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France, which is owned and run by Patrick Mouratoglou, the onetime coach of Serena Williams. Her family remains in Delray Beach.
Coco Gauff has had a difficult start to 2025
Five years after joining Patrick Mouratoglou, Coco Gauff burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old. She reached the US Open final in 2021, before capturing her first Major title at Flushing Meadows in 2023. She ended 2024 on a high, winning the Beijing WTA 1000 and the WTA Tour Finals in Riyadh. She also guided Team USA to victory in the United Cup this January.
Since then, Gauff has found wins hard to come by. She reached the Australian Open quarterfinals but was comfortably beaten by Paula Badosa. After her exit in Melbourne, she said in a post-match interview:
“I take it with a grain of salt. Some people do mean well, so I don't look at it as all bad. I'm proud of myself, and that's all I can say. I promise that I'm going to continue to try my best to improve and live up to my own expectations of myself and whatever everybody else has, I can't control that."
Since Melbourne Gauff's performance has remained sketchy. In Qatar, she was defeated by Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk 2-6, 5-7 in the Round of 32. She then lost to compatriot McCartney Kessler at the same stage in Dubai. Round of 16 defeats in Indian Wells and Miami have left her hoping the European season brings better rewards.