As the 2025 season started, Coco Gauff  was instrumental in helping the United States win the United Cup with a scintillating performance, racking up five thrilling straight-set wins, including one over Iga Swiatek. 

She has carried over her success into the Australian Open, where she has not lost a set before her match against Belinda Bencic in the fourth round. 

Gauff was fully challenged when she overcame a set loss to defeat Bencic and secure her spot in the competition’s quarter-finals. 

After her victory, the athlete’s thoughts turned to TikTok and its ban. Gauff scribbled “RIP TikTok USA” and sketched a broken heart on a camera lens following her in-court interview.

In a social media post, the Women’s Tennis Association shared: “what she said 👀”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Women’s Tennis Association (@wta)

Gauff currently has over 750,000 followers on her own account on TikTok, one of the most widely used social networking sites worldwide.

When asked about her special message during her news conference after the game, Gauff said that the TikTok ban would allow her to focus on other things.

She said: “Yeah, it was funny, a couple people didn’t know what I meant… You can’t access it in the US any more. My phone, I could not access it after my match. I honestly thought I would be able to get away with it because I was in Australia.” 

She added: “I guess it’s something with my number. I don’t know. I have to do some research. Hopefully it comes back. I don’t know. It’s really sad…I love TikTok. It’s like an escape. I honestly do that before matches. I guess it will force me to read books more, so yeah, be more of a productive human probably. Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise. Everything happens for a reason. I do have a feeling that it will somehow come back.” 

Gauff’s new goal: Read books 

Now that she can’t doom scroll through TIkTok, the American has established a new goal for herself: the number of books she wants to read this year. 

Gauff admitted: “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. The goal is 25. I’m pretty confident I’m not going to get there.”

“But shoot for the sky. If I get around the same amount, if I can get to 20, that would be [great]. I’m off to a bad start, because I haven’t read a single page yet this year because of TikTok. Like I said, I think it will force me to read books,” she stated. 

 

Source: Eurosport