$65 Million
Who She Is
Cori “Coco” Gauff, born March 13, 2004, in Atlanta and raised in Delray Beach, Florida, is the highest-paid female athlete in the world and one of the most commercially dominant tennis players of her generation, at the age of 21. She turned professional in 2018 at 14, became the youngest player to qualify for Wimbledon in the Open Era in 2019, won the 2023 US Open to become the first American teenager to claim that title since Serena Williams in 1999, and added the 2025 French Open to become a two-time Grand Slam singles champion. She won the 2024 WTA Finals in Riyadh for a record $4.8 million payout, the largest single-event prize in women’s tennis history, and has been ranked as Forbes’ highest-paid female athlete for three consecutive years.
She is based in Delray Beach, Florida, where she grew up, and remains there as a fully established professional. Florida has no state income tax, which is the single most favorable structural feature of her financial picture. Her career is eight years old and she has already generated over $116 million in gross income.
1. Prize Money (2018-2025)
Gauff turned professional at 14 and her WTA career prize money has been tracked publicly at every stage. Her career total through end of 2025 stands at approximately $29.5 million, confirmed by WTA records.
Key milestones by season:
- 2019: Wimbledon third round at 15 years old, $140,000 in prize money. Total year: ~$440K.
- 2020: Limited season due to pandemic. Total year: ~$800K.
- 2021: Breakthrough year, French Open finalist. Total year: ~$3M.
- 2022: French Open finalist, $1.5M. Total year: ~$3.7M.
- 2023: US Open champion, $3M prize. Total year: ~$6.7M.
- 2024: WTA Finals champion, $4.8M. Total year: ~$9.4M confirmed by Forbes.
- 2025: French Open champion, $2.9M. Total year: ~$7.97M confirmed by Sportico.
Career prize money: ~$29.5M gross.
2. Endorsements (2018-2025)
Gauff’s off-court earnings have grown faster than almost any athlete in the sport’s history, fueled by a combination of on-court results, cultural crossover appeal, and a disciplined approach to brand building that her father Corey Gauff began laying foundations for when she was a child.
Forbes and Sportico have tracked her annual endorsement income precisely:
- 2018-2021 (4 years): Building phase, averaging approximately $3M per year across New Balance, Head, Barilla, and Microsoft. Total: ~$12M.
- 2022: $11M in endorsements, per Forbes.
- 2023: $15M in endorsements (Forbes total for the year was $21.7M; prize money was $6.7M).
- 2024: $25M in endorsements (Forbes total was $34.4M; prize money was $9.4M).
- 2025: $23M in endorsements (Sportico total was $31M; prize money was $7.97M).
Her anchor deal throughout has been New Balance, signed at age 14 in October 2018 and renegotiated upward in November 2022 with the launch of her signature Coco CG1 shoe line, followed by the CG2 in 2024. The New Balance deal is her longest-running partnership and the commercial bedrock of her brand. Other major current and recent partners include Rolex, Mercedes-Benz, Bose, UPS, Baker Tilly, Head, Barilla, Carol’s Daughter, Ray-Ban Meta, L’Oreal, Fanatics, Naked Juice, FlyExclusive, Louis Vuitton, and Miu Miu. Her portfolio spans luxury, financial services, technology, lifestyle, and food, a breadth that reflects a deliberate strategy to position herself as more than a tennis player.
Career endorsements: ~$87M gross.
3. Total Gross Income
| Source | Amount |
|---|---|
| Career prize money (2018-2025) | $29.5M |
| Career endorsements (2018-2025) | $87M |
| Total gross | ~$116.5M |
4. Representation
Gauff was represented by Team8, Roger Federer’s management agency, from early in her career until 2024, when she departed to launch Coco Gauff Enterprises in partnership with WME. The move gives her direct ownership of her commercial entity, with WME supporting rather than owning a stake. Standard tennis management fees run approximately 12% of gross income including endorsements.
Representation (12%): -$14M. Post-representation: ~$102.5M.
5. Tax
Gauff has been based in Delray Beach, Florida, throughout her professional career and continues to live there. Florida has no state income tax. All of her domestic income is therefore subject only to federal income tax at the 37% top rate, with no state-level deduction. Her tournament prize money earned internationally is subject to source-country withholding, standard for touring tennis players, partially offset by foreign tax credits at the US federal level. Applied blended effective rate: 37%, reflecting the Florida no-state-tax advantage and the federal-credit offset on international tournament income.
Tax (37% of $102.5M): -$37.9M. Net after representation and tax: ~$64.6M.
6. Lifestyle Burn
Gauff stated publicly after winning the 2024 WTA Finals that she is “not someone who likes to spend a lot of money.” This is consistent with her public profile: she lives in the same Delray Beach community where she grew up, her social media reflects a family-centered, relatively grounded lifestyle, and her luxury consumption is modest relative to her income. She bought her parents a home, a real estate purchase, not lifestyle burn, and has a custom-built home of her own in Delray Beach. She travels on FlyExclusive, which is also one of her endorsement partners, reducing the net cash cost.
Property purchases are excluded; only consumed spending counts.
- Early career (2018-2021, 4 years): ~$200K/yr consumed = $800K
- Peak earning phase (2022-2025, 4 years): ~$700K/yr consumed = $2.8M
Total lifestyle burn: ~$3.6M. Available to accumulate: ~$61M.
7. Real Estate
Gauff owns a custom-built home in Delray Beach, Florida, and purchased a home for her parents in the same area. No purchase prices or current valuations have been publicly disclosed for either property. The Delray Beach market has appreciated meaningfully over the period she has been established there, but without confirmed purchase data, only a conservative appreciation estimate applies.
Real estate net appreciation: ~$1M.
8. Business Assets
Coco Gauff Enterprises: Launched in 2024 in partnership with WME, structured as her own business entity rather than a managed client relationship. The enterprise is the vehicle for equity partnerships and investments. Too early for a standalone valuation.
Unrivaled (WNBA league investment, 2025): Gauff invested in Unrivaled, the women’s basketball league co-founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. Stake size and value not disclosed. Early-stage investment.
Naked Juice (Chief Smoothie Officer, equity position): Gauff holds an equity position in Naked Brand as part of her partnership deal, including launching her own Coco Gauff Protein Pineapple Orange Smoothie in August 2025. Stake size not disclosed. Early-stage.
All business investments are too early-stage or undisclosed to anchor a material valuation. Combined conservative value: ~$2M.
Business assets: ~$2M.
9. Wealth Management
No documented wealth management arrangements beyond Baker Tilly’s confirmed financial services role. Default applies.
Wealth Management: None reported ($0).
Net Worth Waterfall
| Line Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Career prize money (2018-2025) | +$29.5M |
| Career endorsements (2018-2025) | +$87M |
| Less: representation (12%, Team8/WME) | -$14M |
| Less: tax (37% blended, Florida resident, no state tax) | -$37.9M |
| Less: lifestyle burn (era-scaled, consumed only) | -$3.6M |
| Real estate appreciation (Delray Beach properties) | +$1M |
| Business assets (Coco Gauff Enterprises, Unrivaled, Naked Juice) | +$2M |
| Wealth Management | $0 |
| Total Net Worth | ~$64M → $65M |
Our calculation: $65 Million.
Why Our Figure Is Higher Than Consensus
Celebrity Net Worth places Gauff at $35 million. Our independent build produces $65 million, and the gap comes from two sources.
First, the endorsement total. Forbes and Sportico have independently confirmed her annual earnings year by year: $21.7M in 2023, $34.4M in 2024, $31M in 2025. Summing the full career from 2018 using those anchors produces approximately $116.5M in gross income. Many consensus estimates appear to use a point-in-time snapshot of her net worth rather than building from the full career earnings base.
Second, Florida’s zero state income tax. A Florida resident earning $116.5M pays approximately 37% effective federal tax on post-representation income. A hypothetical New York or California resident at the same gross would pay closer to 50%, leaving roughly $13M less after tax on this income base. Consensus figures may not be calibrating to Gauff’s actual jurisdiction.
The resulting $65M is the product of eight years of the most commercially successful early career in women’s tennis history, filtered through honest math.
Eight Years In
Coco Gauff turned professional at 14. She is 21 years old. She has already earned more gross income than most professional tennis players will accumulate in a full career, topped the Forbes female athlete earnings list three consecutive years, won two Grand Slams, and launched her own management company. She is at the beginning of what her trajectory suggests will be one of the longest and most commercially significant careers in women’s tennis. The $65 million she has built in eight years is a foundation, not a ceiling.
