“This is my first real relationship,” Coco Gauff told Time in April 2024, confirming that she had had a boyfriend for about a year. That is probably the most open confession Gauff has ever made about her love life. But she has kept the identity of that special person under wraps. To make matters even more interesting, she kept sharing intriguing posts about that person. Now, add to that her friend Jalen Sera’s comments on her social media posts and it makes Gauff’s followers believe that Sera is THE person!

Sera was beaming with pride during Gauff’s dominant win against Qinwen Zheng in WTA Finals in early November last year. Taking to Instagram, Sera reshared a post by the official account of WTA Tour, which congratulated the star player for her victory. “IT GIRL 🫡,” Sera wrote. Later that month, Gauff finally broke the privacy rule.

She posted a series of pictures from her time at the Camp Flog Gnaw music festival in Los Angeles via Instagram on November 21, which included a snap of Gauff and Sera standing next to each other. Just last month Sera again showed up in Gauff’s posts when she the USA to win the 2025 United Cup. “Here we go 🚀 ,” Sera commented under Gauff’s Instagram post. Come Valentines Day and Gauff is again back to her intriguing self- she shared the token of love, but the sender is unknown! Meanwhile her mother Candi also joined in.

Gauff took to her official Instagram handle and shared the Valentine’s Day message that she received from her boyfriend. Posting a story, Gauff showed off the bouquet and the message, which read, “Happy Valentine’s Day, star! I love you. What we have will mean everything to me, forever and always.” Quoting a song by Sade, the message further added, “It’s all about our love, so shall it be forever, never ending.”

Further, in the subsequent story, Gauff shared a gift and message received from her mother Candi. On Valentine’s Day, Gauff’s mother gifted her with a Sour Patch Kids pack, and the message said, “I hope Valentine’s Day is filled with lots of reminders of how loved you are today and all year round.”

Meanwhile, Gauff has already set couple goals this year with her boyfriend, Sera. During an interview, she revealed, “I think I got like, 18 or 20 books last year, somewhere between that. This year I set the goal because my boyfriend and I, we set it on the year so it’s, the goal is 25. I’m pretty confident I’m not gonna get there” but “you know, shoot for the sky.” Gauff thinks that dating someone who is away from Tennis has been a blessing for her.

“To just have someone to talk to who is not involved in tennis at all gives me a fresh perspective,” Coco had said. she recalled how Sera’s encouragement helped her during the 2023 US Open, where she clinched her maiden Grand Slam title. The night before the final, nerves got the best of her, and Sera stayed on the phone till late night to ease her tension. “I told him, ‘Let’s talk until it’s time to go to sleep,’ so we spoke until 1:00 a.m., and then I went to sleep,” Gauff shared. Interestingly, their connection seems almost fate-driven.

Coco’s mother was Sera’s fourth-grade teacher. Candy said, “He’s always been a smart, nice kid.” While Gauff is having a good time off the court, she has received a major setback on the court. As a result, she received game-changing advice from legendary coach Rick Macci following a massive upset.

Rick Macci’s plan for Coco Gauff to make a strong comeback

Earlier this week, Gauff suffered a shock defeat against Marta Kostyuk in the round of 32 clash at the Qatar Open. The latter was dominant right from the word go as she defeated Gauff in straight sets 6-2, 7-5. While it was a disappointing defeat for Gauff, it came after her Australian Open quarterfinal defeat against Paula Badosa. As a result, Rick Macci had some advice for Gauff to overcome her defeat.

He said, “For Coco to be the best she can be going into the lab and receiving a science based blueprint,” using which she “can expedite the learning curve and bulletproof her career as she is going to correct the REAL origin of the problem not a symptom and know Exactly how to flip the script.”

Keeping faith in Coco’s abilities, Macci wrote on X, “Coco will be fine as she is a fighter and has turbo jets in her shoes.” The 70-year-old further wrote, “X factor for greatness is the second serve; not connected properly and the forehand is the same. When you’re confident, technical flaws can Hide. When you get nervous, they bubble up and opponents Seek.”

Whether Coco can quickly improve these issues ahead of her next major tournaments remains to be seen as the flaws Macci points out have been with the American for over two years now, despite the arrival of new coach Matt Daly. Gauff will next be seen in action at the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championships next week. She is the third seed there and will look to make a strong comeback after her disappointing start to the season.