ATLANTA — Coco Gauff, the Atlanta-born tennis star who made waves with her run at Wimbledon as a 15-year-old three years ago, has now registered her best showing at a Grand Slam tournament.
Gauff, now 18, reached the semifinals of the French Open on Tuesday by beating Sloane Stephens in straight sets, 7-5, 6-2.
She came into the tournament the 18th-seeded singles player, beating Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino, Alison Van Uytvanck, Kaia Kanepi and 31st-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium on her way to meeting Stephens in the quarterfinals.
Gauff is now the third-highest seeded player remaining in the tournament, after 17th-seeded Leylah Fernandez fell to Gauff's semifinals opponent, Martina Trevisan of Italy.
The only remaining seeds ahead of Gauff now are fellow American Jessica Pegula - her doubles partner - and world No. 1 Iga Swiatek. One of Pegula or Swiatek will be eliminated before the semifinals, however, as they play each other in the quarters.
Gauff and Pegula are also still alive in the doubles tournament, where they'll next play the duo of Lucie Hradecka and Sania Mirza in the third round.
In February, Gauff's former tennis coach here in Atlanta, Jewel Peterson, called her a "coach's dream" who always looked like a future star.
She said she believed Gauff could be the world No. 1 someday, but also hailed her maturity and perspective off the court, speaking out about social issues.
"Athletes are now celebrities when it comes to what you wear, what you eat. We are all taking cues from them about everything else, why not about social injustice," Peterson said.
She also talked about Gauff's position in the game as a Black woman, one of several emerging tennis stars - including Stephens, her opponent on Tuesday - who are taking the baton as Black women in the sport from the Williams sisters.
"When we talk about Black women in tennis, there is a long history, we can go all the way back to Athea Gibson, to my mentors, now Venus and Serena," Peterson said. "Now they have the mindset that 'because they did it, I can.' So that's a huge thing to see the women who trail blazed and who came before them."