Coco Gauff has rapidly become one of the best players on the WTA Tour, as she proved once more in 2025.

Gauff is only 21 years old, but she already boasts 11 titles on the WTA Tour, including two at Grand Slam level.

The American also managed to climb to number two in the world rankings at one stage, with that world number one spot perhaps next on her radar.

But like many of her fellow players across the WTA and ATP tours, Gauff isn’t entirely satisfied with the current state of modern tennis.

Coco Gauff calls for tennis prize money change
Gauff has now honed in on one specific concern, telling Forbes: “In Grand Slams we’re obviously there when it comes to the prize money, but on the Tour it’s a very big gap.

And I think the start is for sure targeting the ATP and WTA combined events, because for me there’s no reason we’re both playing two out of three sets, playing at the same venue, and sometimes there are female players like me, Aryna [Sabalenka], Iga [Swiatek], Jess [Pegula], who are selling out some of these stadiums more than some of the other guys and they’re getting paid way more.

“So I just think on a fair standpoint that that’s one of the… some combined events have that, but I would like to reach all of that first and then we can work our way down when it comes to 500s and 250 level.

“But I think combined events we can look at it objectively, it definitely doesn’t make a lot of sense why the pay gap is that large.”

Coco Gauff says if she’s rewatched her ‘crazy’ US Open final win
Gauff’s latest WTA season involved a second Grand Slam success at the French Open, following her maiden title on home soil in 2023.

Looking back on her US Open final win against Sabalenka that year, Gauff said: “It was a crazy match. I remember I went in there and I don’t know, I felt like I was just not playing good.

“Obviously Aryna is like a power hitter, and I knew I needed to run a lot in that match to win, but also have to be aggressive.

“And I just felt like all ends of the court just wasn’t working for me. Forehand was not on, backhand was not on.

“I lost that first set, and then I went in the bathroom, and I was like, ‘I’m not going to have what happened at Roland Garros happen today’.

“For some reason from that moment on, I felt like no matter what happened that day, I will win the match. That’s one of those matches I actually blacked out on.

“I really didn’t know what happened. It was the most crazy thing that I can describe. Immediately after, I didn’t remember the match.

“Even when I was doing interviews and stuff, all I could remember was one point, it was like a break point, I hit a backhand cross passing shot, and that was literally the only thing I remember in that match.

“And I think that just goes to show that I felt like I just let my instincts take over, let the practice and training take over. To this day, I haven’t watched the match back, and I still can’t tell you what happened.”

It was a monumental effort from the American, who came from behind to beat the Belarusian 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in New York.

Sabalenka has since suffered further Grand Slam heartache at the hands of Gauff, who again came from behind to win their 2025 French Open final 6-7(5-7), 6-2, 6-4.

The two titles arrived after the American reached the 2022 Roland Garros final, where she lost 1-6, 3-6 to Swiatek.

But as Gauff alluded to, she remembered that feat in the bathroom in New York the following year, showing that lessons can indeed be learned from failure.