“It’s really great to bring my family here on my first Christmas away from home . . . it was important for them to be able to come with me,” said Coco Gauff ahead of her debut at the United Cup on Sunday. The WTA Finals champion arrived in Australia a week ago for the team-based event. It’s the first time she’s not at home, in Florida, to welcome Christmas with her family members. Well, you can’t do much when there are national duties to serve. But a former WTA pro, who has a firsthand experience of living away from home, feels for Gauff.

In an episode of the Tennis Channel Live podcast, dated December 29, former American player CoCo Vandeweghe expressed, “I know it’s difficult being away from home, like Coco Gauff said. It’s really difficult to have that first Christmas away from home, but it’s still a learning curve,” said Vandeweghe.

Gauff is currently representing Team USA in the third edition of the United Cup. Owing to which, CoCo further threw light on “how young Coco Gauff is, how many seasons deep she is. So she’s just definitely learning how to take her lumps through here and deal with the hardships that we have to deal with traveling all around the world all year long.” Well, who can understand the feeling of staying away from home better than Vandeweghe herself?

For the unversed, she was raised in California. But she had to move to Florida, when she turned 18, to train at the USTA’s national tennis academy. It was the first time in her life she lived away from her family and her home. Undoubtedly, it “was a really tough adjustment for me. Whether it was being a part of my mom’s travel plans, or keeping up with my brother, or just hanging out with friends,” she revealed back in 2017 in a personal blog titled ‘My Way’ on The Players’ Tribune website.

Currently for Gauff, her main focus right now is to perform well for her nation at the United Cup. In the last edition, the USA was the champion, so it becomes even more important for her and other teammates to make sure their country ends up defending the title. And the 20-year-old appears to be ready to make it happen.

Coco Gauff oozes confidence ahead of her United Cup debut on Sunday against Leylah Fernandez

“This will be my first time playing the United Cup, so I’m super excited to kick off the year in Australia,” she said prior to her first match in the event, as reported by Tennis Tonic, dated December 25. “It’s always an honour to represent my country,” she added.

Top Comment by Anna Manning

You can do this CoCo shake the wiggles off. Go USA.

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Debate

On Day 3 of the United Cup, on December 29, Coco Gauff will go against Canada’s Leylah Fernadez. Ahead of their battle, the latter showed an anticipation of facing the American tennis sensation. “Playing against (Coco Gauff) is never easy. She’s a tough opponent, great competitor. So hopefully we’re going to have fun tomorrow and going to put on some good show,” said the 22-year-old WTA pro.

The two have never met each other in a professional match. It will be their first encounter, at a stage like the United Cup, fighting for their respective nations. Fernandez didn’t really have a great year in 2024.

She failed to win a single title in the past season. However, she did make a few deep runs at certain tournaments. In June 2024, she managed to enter the final of the Eastbourne International. However, Russia’s Daria Kasatkina proved too much for her and beat her 3-6, 4-6. Fernandez also made it to the SF round of the Hong Kong Open. Right now, she’s coming off a morale boosting victory over Croatia’s Donna Vekic in her previous encounter at the United Cup. She beat Vekic easily and took the match with a scoreline of 6-4,6-3.

On the other hand, Coco Gauff is high on confidence after becoming the first American player, after Serena Williams in 2014, to win the WTA Finals trophy. Last month, at Riyadh, she beat China’s Qinwen Zheng 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 in the final battle and claimed the prestigious title. Her avid fans will expect the World No.3 to start her United Cup journey with a thumping win over Leylah Fernandez. Will she succeed in doing so and give Team USA a lead over Canada? Let us know in the comments below.