17-year-old Coco Gauff suffered a loss in the French Open quarter-final game versus Barbora Krejcikova as she lost the first set 6-7, 3-6. The teenager is the youngest to play a Grand Slam quarter-finalist in 15 years. 

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Who is Coco Gauff?

Born in Florida, Coco Gauff is the eldest of three siblings. Her father Corey Gauff played the NCAA Division I basketball and her mother Candi Gauff is a former gymnast and a track-and-field athlete. Corey wanted his daughter to pursue professional basketball but inspired by Serena and Venus Williams, Coco chose to play tennis. She started playing tennis when she was 7-year-old. 

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“I wasn’t much of a team person. I loved tennis. I was so-so about it in the beginning because when I was younger I didn’t want to practice at all. I just wanted to play with my friends. When I turned eight, that was when I played ‘Little Mo’ and after that, I decided to do that for the rest of my life,” US Open’s website quotes Coco Gauff. 

She lost in the final of the 2017 US Open and then went on to win French Open Juniors next year. 

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Pop-singers Rihanna, Beyonce, and former first lady Michelle Obama are Gauff’s heroes. 

Gauff became the youngest woman to reach a major quarter-final at the age of 17 years and 86 days after Nicole Vaidisova (17 years and 44 days) in 2006.