Coco Gauff has doubled down on her commitment to HBCU students.
Gauff comes from a family of HBCU graduates, Tennis reports, but didn’t have a chance to follow suit, choosing her tennis career instead. She has secured numerous titles, including 2025 French Open champion, 2023 U.S. Open champion, and is the highest-paid women’s athlete for the third year in a row, according to Sportico. Yet, she told Tennis that if she weren’t playing the sport, an HBCU would be in her playbook.
“If I didn’t play tennis, I would have loved to attend an HBCU,” she told the outlet. “I have family members on both sides, both my grandmothers went to HBCUs, uncle and aunt went to HBCUs, and growing up, just attending, going to HBCU Classic games and things like that.”
Coco Gauff Scholarship Program
Gauff donated $100,000 to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) in 2025 to provide scholarships to HBCU students playing competitive tennis. This led to the launch of the Coco Gauff Scholarship Program, which went into effect in May 2025, the UNCF reports.
Now, Gauff has donated an additional $150,000, which was announced during her second-round match at the Australian Open, according to Tennis.
“It was just important to support that cause, especially in tennis. I feel like HBCU tennis, a lot of times, doesn’t get the funding that they need. So for me, I would just always try to uplift, like I said in the previous question, marginalized communities and, you know, put things, support where I can,” she expressed to Tennis. “I hope it goes to students who really need it, and — well, it will go to students who need it. Yeah, I’m happy that I was able to do this for the second year in a row.”
So far, the scholarship has supported 10 students, reports the outlet.
