Tennis star Coco Gauff has responded in heartbreaking fashion to online abuse she suffered following on from a recent photoshoot.
The 22-year-old embarked on a social media absence and returned to the platform but was left hurt by what she saw upon coming back to X, formerly known as Twitter.
Gauff took part in a photoshoot for fashion brand Miu Miu. As part of the classic campaign, the 10-time doubles champion posed wearing a red polo shirt, a skirt, loathers and a leather bag.
Gauff was on the court for a number of the snaps but it was her hairstyle that drew negative comments. The American wore her hair naturally in a bun and pictures were shared by @AthleteVanity.
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The post garnered a staggering 6.4 million views. A good chunk of people took issue with the look and the messaging, with many hateful responses in the comments.
The comments were so strong that the account had to put out a second post defending Gauff, writing: "The real flex is loving yourself and how you appear and MiuMiu tapped into that unapologetically with these photos."
They also said that Gauff was "glowing". But the two-time Grand Slam champion was clearly affected by what she saw and wrote: "deleted twitter for a month, came back today, and got instantly reminded why I should not be on here lol :/".
Gauff has regularly spoken about the negative part of social media, taking many breaks from Twitter specifically due to the platform being "toxic".
While doing media at the 2026 Miami Open, Gauff said that she was on a break from Twitter and hadn't been "on in like a month or two months".
At the 2025 German Open, she went into detail about the horrible type of messages she and other family members have received online and called for platforms to do more to protect athletes.
She stated: "It's the worst you can get. Death threats, to your family, to yourself. I've had people DM [direct message] my boyfriend and friends about it. Racist comments, like all you can imagine. Nudity, things like that. It's a gross kind of thing that we have going on in tennis.”
She continued: "It's something that we have to keep bringing awareness to. I would love for some of the social media platforms to get involved, not only when it comes to tennis players. "Influencers, other athletes, they all get these comments, so it's something that can be addressed. I know the WTA is doing what they can to make us feel protected, but I definitely think that a lot of these platforms can step in as well.”
On the court, Gauff was last in action at the Miami Open, reaching the final before losing to world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka.
She is set to return to action for the Stuttgart Open later this month.
Topics: Tennis
Josh Lawless