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Tennis

Coco Gauff: Born in West Boca, Lives in Delray Beach with Palm Beach Link

2024-12-16

All tennis enthusiasts are well-acquainted with the fact that Coco Gauff hails from Delray Beach. However, diehard tennis fans have often been under the impression that Gauff was born in Atlanta. This claim was seemingly supported by Wikipedia and numerous previous WTA/tennis bios. But, as it turns out, this is an alternate fact. The No. 3 ranked player in the world, Coco Gauff, was actually born in West Boca Medical Center. It was during this time that Candi, Coco's mother, was in the Boca Raton/Delray area for her baby shower, which was hosted by Coco's grandmother, Yvonne Lee Odom. As fate would have it, Candi's water broke before the family party, and they rushed her to West Boca Medical Center, where Coco was born earlier than planned on March 13, 2004. "We still had the baby shower at Mrs. Odom's house while Candi was in the hospital," said Candi's cousin, Chenay Lowe. "It was too late to cancel the shower."The Gauffs resided in the Atlanta area until Coco was 7 years old when they moved back to Delray Beach. Fast forward to the present, and Yvonne Lee Odomo's sister is Brenda Williams, whose granddaughters are Cassidy and Courtney Lowe, Coco's cousins. (Chenay Lowe is their mother.)The Gauff/Lowes will be coming together again in New Orleans on Monday when the Lowe Sisters face off in a college basketball game between Dillard University and Talladega College of the HBCAU. Coco has been considering attending the game to support her cousins.During the annual break in the pro tennis tour, Coco has been in Delray Beach after an outstanding conclusion to her up-and-down 2024 season. Coco achieved a remarkable feat by winning her first-ever WTA season-ending championships in Saudi Arabia in November, finishing the year at No. 3 in the world. She had also won the China Open prior to the WTA championships.Coco Gauff earned a reported $30.4 million in 2024. For the second consecutive year, she became the highest-earning women's athlete. Despite not adding another Grand Slam to her 2023 U.S. Open title, she made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open and French Open. However, she faced fourth-round losses at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open and also failed to win a medal at the Paris Olympics.The U.S. Open defeat served as a catalyst for Gauff to part ways with her renowned coach, Brad Gilbert, and hire Matt Daly, a former Notre Dame player who had worked with Denis Shapalov. On Instagram, Coco recently wrote, "I'm so grateful for all the support the last few weeks. Getting to win the last tournament of the season and it also being my second biggest title of my career so far is insane. Wow WTA FINALS CHAMPION. All glory to God truthfully. I‘m eternally grateful for the life I get to live and to have moments like this makes all of the hours/sacrifice I put into this worth it. time to rest for a little bit but then it’s back to grind for next years szn."