For Markus Günthardt, Coco Gauff’s entry gives him particular pleasure. “First of all, she’s a player I love watching,” says the Tournament Director of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. “And secondly, we’ll be hosting all four reigning Grand Slam champions.”
The exclusive quartet consists of title holder Iga Swiatek (French Open 2023), Marketa Vondrousova (Wimbledon 2023), Coco Gauff (US Open 2023) and Aryna Sabalenka (Australian Open 2024). The world class field also contains three other players that have won Grand Slams – the Porsche Brand Ambassadors Angelique Kerber and Emma Raducanu plus Jelena Ostapenko.
“Stuttgart provides the perfect week with great hospitality to start the European season” Coco Gauff
“I am excited to kick off the clay court swing in Stuttgart. I have had a lot of success on the clay and I think Stuttgart provides the perfect week with great hospitality to start the European season,” says Coco Gauff. “The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix is still a tournament I can improve on and I am up for the challenge!”
Coco Gauff started the 2024 tennis season with a win
By successfully defending her title in Auckland, Coco Gauff got off to a winning start to the 2024 season. She went on to reach the semifinals at the Australian Open. Even though she succumbed to the eventual winner Aryna Sabalenka, she made an indelible mark on the tournament when sending down the fastest serve. It was clocked at 201 km/h.
Coco Gauff was born in Delray Beach, Florida on 13 March 2004. Her parents were both successful athletes – the father as a basketball player at Georgia State, the mother as an artistic gymnast and track and field athlete at Florida State University. The little Coco admired the Williams sisters Serena and Venus and was only six-years-old when she stood on a tennis court for the first time. From that moment on, everything went very quickly. Competing aged 13 in the 2017 US Open juniors, she became the youngest finalist in the history of the tournament. One year later, she won the title at the French Open and became the junior world No. 1.
At the tender age of 15 years and 214 days in 2019, Coco Gauff won her first WTA title in Linz. There had not been a younger winner on the WTA Tour since 2004 when Nicole Vaidisova won in Tashkent. She also entered the record books at the French Open when reaching her first Grand Slam final – against Iga Swiatek. She was the youngest player to achieve the feat since Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon in 2004. Coached by the former world class player Brad Gilbert, the American’s ultimate breakthrough came in the 2023 season with wins in Auckland, Cincinnati, Washington D.C. and at the US Open. After breaking into the Top 10 for the first time on 12 September 2022, the current world No. 3 has amassed seven singles titles.
Doubles final in the Porsche Arena
She has been even more successful in doubles where she has notched up eight tournament victories. The list includes the 2023 WTA 1000 tournaments in Doha and Miami together with Jessica Pegula. She stood with her fellow American in the doubles final at the 2022 French Open and at the head of the doubles rankings in September 2023. She appeared in her first doubles Grand Slam final with Caty McNally at the 2021 US Open.
To date, Coco Gauff has contested the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on two occasions – in 2022 and 2023. She has gone the furthest in the doubles – when partnering Shuai Zhang to the final on her first appearance in the Porsche Arena. Her aim this time around is to win the singles title and the Porsche sports car, the traditional main prize for the winner.
An event for the whole family
One of the most prestigious indoor tournaments on the WTA Tour, the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix not only presents the crème del la crème of world tennis. Its visitors also enjoy an exceptional live atmosphere in Stuttgart’s so-called “Hallenduo” comprising of the Porsche Arena and the Hanns Martin Schleyer Halle. An attractive programme of side events for all ages with a colourful mixture of sport and entertainment turns the long-established tournament into an unforgettable experience for the whole family.
Ticket sales
Tickets for the 47th Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in the Porsche Arena from 13 to 21 April 2024 are available via the official www.porsche-tennis.com tournament website or at Easy Ticket Service – in Internet at www.easyticket.de or by calling +49 711 / 2 55 55 55.
Porsche in Tennis
The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix is the flagship of Porsche’s worldwide involvement in women’s tennis. First played in Filderstadt in 1978, the long-standing Stuttgart tournament has been held in the city’s Porsche Arena since 2006. It stands for tradition and innovation, as does the Porsche brand. As the most loyal sponsor of women’s international tennis, Porsche has accompanied the WTA’s oldest indoor event right from the start. Together with its subsidiaries, the sports car manufacturer was last year the automotive partner of the WTA tournaments in Linz (Austria), Bad Homburg (Germany), Bastad (Sweden), Cincinnati (USA) and Cluj-Napoca (Romania). Angelique Kerber and Emma Raducanu give Porsche a face in tennis as Brand Ambassadors. Jule Niemeier, Maria Sakkari, Karolina Muchova, Anett Kontaveit and Iga Swiatek are additionally “Friends of the Brand” in their home countries. As a premium partner of the “Deutsche Tennis Bund” (DTB – German Tennis Association), the company has been supporting Porsche Team Germany in the Billie Jean King Cup since 2012 and fosters up-and-coming players in the Porsche Talent Team and the Porsche Junior Team.