Imagine staring down defeat and then storming back to pull off an unforgettable victory. That’s exactly what Coco Gauff did in her WTA Finals championship clash against Qinwen Zheng! Down by a set and trailing midway through the second, Gauff dug deep, clawing her way back into the match and clinching the title with pure grit and style. Her jaw-dropping comeback has the tennis world buzzing and among her biggest supporters is her boyfriend, Jalen Sera, who’s singing her praises and standing proudly by her side.

The American tennis sensation pulled off a remarkable victory against Qinwen Zheng in three sets. The Chinese star hit the courts with an air of confidence and quickly depicted it by winning the first set 6-3. She continued her dominance in the second set with Gauff trailing behind 3-1. However, the 20-year-old demonstrated remarkable resilience and quickly turned the tables to win the second set 6-4 to level the match and force a third set.

Zheng put Gauff on the back foot early in the set, where Gauff twice found herself down a break and had the victory within her reach as she served for the match at 5-4. But with four unforced errors, she allowed Gauff to level. Following that, the American was dominant through the tiebreak, eventually winning it 7-6(2) to clinch the victory (3-6 6-4 7-6 (2)) and lift the prestigious title. Obviously, her boyfriend felt proud. 

Taking to Instagram, Sera reshared a post by the official account of WTA Tour, which congratulated the star player for her victory. Captioning the story, Sera wrote, “IT GIRL 🫡,” which denotes a young woman who not only won the tournament but also silenced her critics who were writing her off.

While it remains uncertain when and how Gauff and Sera’s love story began, the star player has not shied away from revealing her beau’s artistic side. In an interview with Vogue, Gauff said, “He’s a very nice guy. He’s about to apply for music school.” Detailing his passion further, Gauff said, “He wants to be an actor and he plays the guitar.” Sera’s bio on Instagram also reads “Artist” highlighting his love for art.

But you know, despite all fingers pointing towards Jalen, and Coco occasionally spilling information about him, she has never really named him in public. One such major hint came in April.

In an interview with ‘Time’ Coco had revealed that had a boyfriend for about a year, whose identity she prefers to keep private. She did share that he’s from Atlanta, and not famous. “This is my first real relationship,” Coco had said on that occasion. Well, the intriguing point is that Jalen is also from Atlanta!  Not only Coco, but her mother Candi also had a connection with this man.

Candi was the 4th-grade teacher of the man! “My mom always said, if they’re bad in school, they’re probably bad as adults. He’s always been a smart, nice kid,” Candi had given out. However, Jalen apparently is far from tennis.

In an interview with Vogue in March 2024 Coco had confirmed this. “Some people thought it was someone in tennis, and that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Coco had said. According to her “To just have someone to talk to who is not involved in tennis at all gives me a fresh perspective.” In fact, Coco had even cracked a joke about it.

In an Instagram post shared in May 2024 by ESPNW, Gauff joked that she acknowledged that her boyfriend was not into the sport after watching Challengers, a tennis film featuring Zendaya. “I told my boyfriend ‘thank god you don’t play tennis’ because [Tashi Duncan] is right, I do not want to date a scrub on tour!” Coco had said. But, although he has nothing to do with Coco’s sport, he does extend his support when Coco needs the most, just how he did during the 2023 US Open.

As Coco had revealed, when she started getting nervous the night before the U.S. Open finals in September 2023, she leaned on her boyfriend to help calm her. She told reporters that her 2022 French Open loss stemmed from overthinking and she did she did not want to do repeat the mistake during last year’s US Open.

“Honestly, I didn’t have any of those visions [of winning] till last night. You know, I thought about it, but I told myself to get it out of my head, because that’s what I did at French. I was envisioning, you know, what would happen if I would win. I think I wanted it too much.” To get of the crisis, she called her boyfriend.

“Last night, I started a little bit, but honestly, I just called my boyfriend, and 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 had said back then. But well, the exciting news is that the lack of public appearance of Coco’s boyfriend might soon end. Listen to this.

“My boyfriend, he’ll probably come to maybe some tournaments in the U.S. It’s just a little bit easier than coming to Europe,” Coco had said to People in June. But that occasion has yet to materialize. Meanwhile, Sera continues to laud Coco on his social media, and that is not always for tennis achievements.

Sera took to his Instagram to express immense delight when Coco Gauff received a special mention in Tyler, the Creator’s latest song Thought I was Dead, released in October. Sera posted the original video from Tyler’s Instagram post and wrote, “YACGYCSM,” signifying his extreme happiness and loss for words. Remember, the song sheds light on Gauff’s tennis prowess and serving skills. Now, with her latest feat, Sera has once proved to be one of her biggest cheerleaders. And why not? After all, Coco did not just win the WTA finals in Riyadh, but became a part of tennis history with a heap of records. 

“Forever be etched in history” – Coco Gauff expresses immense pride

Even before playing the final match Coco made a record in the tournament. The 20-year-old became the youngest player to defeat the World No. 1 (Aryna Sabalenka in the semi final) and World No. 2 (Iga Swiatek in the round robin) in the same tournament since Maria Sharapova achieved the same feat in 2006 at the US Open. Then look at the final match which itself was a record.

Gauff, 20, and Zheng, 22, were the youngest pair to appear in the final of the tournament since 2004 when 17-year-old Sharapova defeated 23-year-old Serena Williams. So Coco became the youngest player in two decades to win the tournament and the youngest American to win it since Serena (2001). In fact, she was not unaware of the record.

“I asked (about the record) as soon as I got the match. I asked: ‘Was this the youngest? It has to be some kind of record.’ I asked the Sky team, what was the answer. They didn’t have it, but that’s good to know. It was 2004. The year I was born was the last time, so in my lifetime, basically, I’ve never seen it. That’s pretty cool. It just shows age is a number both ways, old and young,” WTA reported.

This was also her first season finale title which came in a thrilling fashion. Interestingly, it came at a venue that has not hosted enough women’s tennis matches and hence, Gauff is prouder of her achievement. 

Speaking after winning the match, the 20-year-old said, “This means a lot to me. This is the first professional women’s tennis event here in Saudi Arabia and I’ll forever be etched in history in that standard.” If these were not enough, Coco returned from Riyadh with not just the glorious title but also a whopping prize money of $4.8 Million, the largest single prize in WTA history, according to the Tennis Channel.

Talking to Sky Sports after winning the match, Gauff said, “That was a great match. I was just trying my best to hang in there and I never gave up.” For now, it would be interesting to see how Coco Gauff will roll in 2025, maybe finally bringing her boyfriend out in public officially!