Coco Gauff recently revisited signing her first contract with her on-court apparel and footwear sponsor New Balance. Gauff was only 14 when she signed the deal. According to the newly-crowned French Open women’s singles champion, her father Corey played an instrumental role in convincing her to sign on the dotted line.
In the wake of her title triumph at Roland Garros, the 21-year-old featured as a guest on Nice Talk with Nikki Ogunnaike. Here, the WTA No. 2 was asked if she had any awareness of what the New Balance deal meant when she was 14.
Coco Gauff answered:
“No, I didn’t know anything about that. When I signed with New Balance at 14, I didn’t even know how much the contract was until I saw an article about it.”
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The 2023 US Open champion went on to lay bare how her father Corey nudged her to sign the deal, despite not bringing up the money involved. Gauff lauded her father's "vision" at the time, saying:
"And so when New Balance came along, to be honest, my dad was just like, let's just do it. I think you will like it. Just trust me on this. And I was like, okay. But he did that without mentioning money or anything like that. But it ended up being the best decision ever. And I'm so grateful for him to see the vision."
She also acknowledged that these days, she's much more aware and involved when it comes to signing contracts for business deals.
"But yeah, obviously I'm more aware of what I'm making now. I'm very much in the business meetings now, looking at these contracts and things like that. But at the time, I'm very happy that they kept me unaware of that because I feel like I could have maybe wanted to play for the wrong reasons," Gauff concluded.
Neither Gauff nor New Balance have made the exact valuation of the deal public. However, the partnership has gone from strength to strength over the years, aided immensely by the 10-time career singles titlist's on-court prowess. In 2022, Gauff got her own signature shoes from New Balance, the Coco CG1, which went on to grow into an elaborate collection of its own.
Earlier this year, the sports footwear and apparel giant announced a new tennis collection for Gauff, which the WTA star debuted at the 2025 Italian Open.
Coco Gauff showcased new on and off-court looks in Rome designed by New Balance in collaboration with high fashion designer label
In April this year, New Balance and Miu Miu came together to announce three new sets of on and off-court apparel for Coco Gauff. The WTA star debuted the first of those sets at the 2025 Italian Open in the buildup to her successful Roland Garros campaign. Gauff's look in Rome featured navy and white predominantly, with a dash of red.
The WTA 1000 tournament turned out to be a memorable one for the 21-year-old, as she reached the final. However, she ultimately came up second-best at the last hurdle as home favorite Jasmine Paolini clinched the prestigious claycourt title.
Coco Gauff is slated to sport the second set of the New Balance and Miu Miu tennis collection at the upcoming German Open, a WTA 500 grasscourt event. She is expected to debut the third set at the 2025 Cincinnati Open in August.
