Misc Tennis

Coco Gauff column: How TikTok and Jaden Smith help escape Australian Open pressure

Coco Gauff column for BBC Sport

Coco Gauff, who shot to fame by reaching the Wimbledon last 16 as a 15-year-old in 2019, is the latest leading WTA Tour player to write a BBC Sport column.

In her latest piece before the Australian Open fourth round, the American seventh seed talks about her other role as a TikTok trendsetter and how her dad became a viral sensation.

Professional tennis can be a tough business so it is important to find a way to unwind – I love to do that by creating videos on TikTok.

I find it the best way to escape from tennis. Maybe some people think there are better ways to escape from things but that is the Gen Z way!

It’s the only app where I’m not necessarily seen as a tennis player. Some people who follow me don’t even know I play tennis.

Obviously people follow me on Instagram and Twitter, which is mainly all tennis content, whereas I rarely post tennis content on TikTok. I only put stuff there if I can make it funny.

I had a viral dance which had millions of views. Nobody knew it was my dance – that’s my fun fact.

I made it as a joke and influencers with millions of followers were doing the dance and some of them were crediting me. So maybe I’m a trendsetter on TikTok!

It’s not the only dance I’ve had go viral, in fact I had one this week which had two million views.

The reason that went viral was because of my dad! Everyone is loving the video of him doing a dance – mainly because he wasn’t that good at it.

My dad claims he doesn’t like the attention but I think he secretly loves it. He’s the type of guy who likes to make people laugh.

He’s definitely playing into it! He did a remake after the first video and if I asked him to do another video, I’m sure he would.

The video was a trend to ‘party next door’ and everyone is doing it with their parents, but I think I was the first person to not teach them the dance, I told them just to copy me.

I think that is the reason why it blew up because I created my own trend – and maybe because people thought my dad was trash.

When I told my dad it had gone viral and how many views it had, he said: “What does viral mean? And do I get a cheque?” He needs to get paid!

Coco Gauff celebrates winning the 2019 Linz Open with her parents Candi and Corey
Gauff celebrated winning her first WTA title as a 15-year-old in 2019 with her parents Candi and Corey, when she beat Jelena Ostapenko – her last-16 opponent in Melbourne on Sunday – in the Linz final

How listening to Jaden, The Weeknd & J Cole puts me in the zone

People will have seen that when I walk out onto court I usually have my headphones on.

Doing this really…

Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at BBC Sport – Tennis…