Coco Gauff’s player box was always filled with her biggest supporters and pillars of strength: her parents, Candi and Corey. She once even admitted that any time she felt nervous, she would just look towards them, hyping her, and she would be back to normal. But things changed in September 2023 when Corey left that box. Instead, he’s out and about at the venues. And the reason, as Gauff laughingly explained, stems from a simple rule she had to enforce for her own on-court focus.

“No, it’s always other people who tell me [where he is]. Yeah, the reason why is ’cause he can’t control his reaction,” Gauff said, laughing in a presser after fighting back to beat Hailey Baptiste in the third round of the Australian Open.

“So I would look and then he would be like this [head in hand] or like this [eyes looking down]. And it’s not necessarily from me. It’s like him. So I just told him we gotta cut it.”

Taking inspiration from Serena and Venus Williams’ father, Richard, Corey was Coco’s first tennis coach. However, she later started training under Patrick Mouratoglou ad Corey had to give up the only job he knew after giving up his own job as a healthcare executive. One thing he never stopped doing, though, was being brutally animated about how Gauff was playing.

So, after she lost her first round in Wimbledon in 2023, she simply walked to her father and said: “Okay dad, we both agreed that you shouldn’t sit in the box. We can go at it, because I just can’t with the reactions.”

Last year, during her US Open quarter-final match against Caroline Wozniacki, Corey was apparently sitting in the gym with his back to the television. As a result, he did not realize when Coco had won. The tennis prodigy shared that a TV attendant had to tell him the news so he could go and greet her.

“I don’t know where he was at French Open and you probably know more than I do, but yeah, I’ve heard that he’s all around the site, usually like locked in on the screen and just pacing,” Coco Gauff added with a smile.

After Gauff’s French Open win, Corey spoke with Tennis Channel, confirming that he hopes to return to her box one day again. But before that, he knows “I’ve got to mature more as a parent to get back there.”

“I hope to return to the box one day where I can just calmly watch and clap and enjoy the match. But it’s such a different feeling with tennis. It’s just in my nature to be very animated when I’m coaching, and that doesn’t work in tennis and it doesn’t work with her,” he had said.

He might not be in her box, but that doesn’t mean the nerves are gone.

What Coco Gauff’s father does behind the scenes

Last year, the Gauff family appeared on the TODAY Show, where Corey Gauff shared that he sometimes listens to music during Coco’s matches to calm himself down.

“I might be listening to gospel music, hype music,” he said. “Just trying to take my mind off the moment, because I get nervous and I feel like she might feel my nervousness.”

He may have felt those nerves again on Friday as Hailey Baptiste broke Coco twice and took the first set. No. 3 seed Coco Gauff fought back from a set down to beat fellow American Hailey Baptiste 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 on Friday in Melbourne, moving into the fourth round of the Australian Open.

It only needed 1 hour and 50 minutes for Gauff to seal the win. It was her 77th career victory at a Grand Slam. Among active players, only Venus Williams (85) and Iga Swiatek (83) have more.

The opening set was one Gauff will likely want to forget. After breaking serve in the first game, she was broken right back. She finished the set with no winners and 11 unforced errors. However, everything changed in the second set. Gauff dominated, including a marathon 14-minute game where she broke Baptiste’s serve after seven deuces to go up 4-0.

“On the serve, I was just trying to be aggressive with my placement and not be too passive,” Gauff said. “There were moments where maybe I was a bit too passive, so honestly, I’m out there trying to figure out that balance like everybody else.”

Gauff closed out the match after earning a key break for a 4-2 lead in the third set. She also praised Baptiste’s game and said her unique style forced adjustments. Next, in the round of 16, Gauff will face No. 19 seed Karolina Muchova, who is 0-4 against her and is coming off a 6-1, 6-1 win over Magda Linette.