Coco Gauff responds to her mother’s ‘iconic’, savage message to ticket freeloaders
Coco Gauff’s mother, Candi, has been praised by WTA stars for her telling ticket freeloaders she will not “hook them up” with tickets for the US Open.
The season-ending Grand Slam at Flushing Meadows is one of the biggest events on the sporting calendar and tickets are always highly sought-after with players receiving requests from long-lost family and friends for free passes to the tournament.
Two-time major champion Gauff’s mother had enough of the freeloaders and took to Instagram to urge people to make their own arrangements to buy tickets.
“Dear Family and friends, I apologize in advance for this blunt, but necessary statement,” she wrote. “I know you are very excited about Coco playing in the US Open. Me too!!!Coco’s guest ticket request have already been accounted for.
“Unfortunately, I will not be able to hook you up with a ticket. Please make arrangements to purchase a ticket. Side note, never ask for more than 2 tickets. Coco is grown now and she has her own friends that she is honoring tickets for the match. Thank you for your continued support.”
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Although Coco herself responded with “lady” and “you’re funny for this” to the message, her fellow WTA Tour stars felt it was about time someone called out the freeloaders.
Jessica Pegula wrote, “Say it louder for the people in the back”, Danielle Collins stated “Honestly we all need a @candigauff in our life” and Madison Keys went with a one-word “Iconic” reply.
During her pre-tournament press conference, Gauff was asked about her mother’s “blunt, but necessary” message.
“I mean, for starters, I did not know she was posting that,” she explained.”I saw the Cincinnati picture before I went to practice, and I saw a long caption, so I’m like, ‘Oh, this is probably something sweet. I’ll read it after practice,’ because I was on the way onto court.
“Then I saw somebody on Threads say, like, ‘Mama Gauff is strict,’ and I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ So I looked, and then I see this post, and I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, what? Why?'”
“But honestly, it was needed, and it was directed towards a few family and friends. But, to be honest, yeah, people come out of the woodwork. You haven’t spoken to someone for years. They don’t say congratulations or happy birthday or nothing, and then they’re like, ‘Oh, I’m in New York and I have eight tickets to your match in your box, please.’
“And, you know, they give us tickets here, but they’re selling an event, so it’s not like I can give all these people tickets. I guess last year they were really stressed out, between my mum and my dad trying to accommodate everyone. And we’re like, ‘We’ll give it,’ but it was just, I think, stressful for them.
“A lot of people personally don’t have my number, so they don’t reach out to me. They’ll reach out to them or someone on my team. And, yeah, I guess somebody – I don’t know who – sent her a text this year where she thought that was like the final straw.
“Somebody must have sent her something and she was just like, ‘I need to make a post.’ But, yeah, specifically in New York, it’s just crazy. New York and Wimbledon are the ones that I think people want to come to, and we try our best to accommodate everyone, but some of the requests are – you’ll be surprised how absurd they are.”
