Serena Williams Claims Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka Don’t Face Same Hate as Black Women

Serena Williams never played against Coco Gauff, but won one match against Naomi Osaka in their four meetings.

Serena Williams Claims Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka Don’t Face Same Hate as Black Women

Coco Gauff, Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka (Image via X/WTA, We Are Tennis, US Open)

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Serena Williams claimed Black players like Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka don’t face the same amount of hate she and those during her playing days have faced. The negative perception of Black athletes is a result of America’s deep-rooted racism.

Williams and her sister Venus Williams even ended up boycotting the Indian Wells, not playing the event for more than a decade, because of the racial slurs hurled at them from the spectators. But Williams’ comment to Net-a-Porter suggests things have changed for the best. She thinks Gauff and Osaka, though they deal with internet trolls, at least don’t face the same brutal racial abuses.

It’s changed. No one’s calling these girls the [things] I was called. People would say we were like men and all this other stuff. I’m not going to let anyone bring me down. I put enough stress on myself. The last thing I’m going to allow is someone else to do that. But I’m so happy that girls nowadays don’t have to go through it as much. I mean, I think internet trolls are different. So, you have that to deal with…

Serena Williams said

For both Osaka and Gauff, the 23-time singles Grand Slam champion is their idol. The 21-year-old has never faced the tennis legend but twice defeated Venus in the same number of matches, in the first rounds of the 2019 Wimbledon and the 2020 Australian Open.

Osaka, however, met Williams four times, winning on three occasions. It was Williams whom the Japanese ace defeated in the final of the 2018 US Open to win her career’s first Grand Slam title.

Osaka finished the 2025 season without winning a title. The four-time Grand Slam champion, however, made two finals. An injury forced her to give the walkover to Clara Tauson at the Auckland Open, while at the Canadian Open, home favorite Victoria Mboko snatched the win.

Andy Roddick comments on Coco Gauff’s determination to win matches despite serving struggles

Andy Roddick couldn’t stop praising Coco Gauff‘s never-give-up attitude on the court, even though she has yet to master her serves. The 2003 US Open champion cited the example of Gauff’s victory in the final of the French Open against Aryna Sabalenka to prove his point.

Coco Gauff (via X/Jose Morgado)
Coco Gauff (via X/Jose Morgado)

I will say this, and it’s like a testament to Coco Gauff, and we’ve covered the serving situation. We’ve covered the forehand situation. To be dealing with two shots like that and then to take a kind of gross day and somehow being able to manipulate this match into a street fight, a battle of the wills, where it’s not just Sabalenka’s on both sides, and she’s done it in both of the Slam finals she’s won, right?

Gauff finished the season with 432 double faults, the most on the women’s tour. Last year, the tally was 430, again, the most on the tour. Gauff even cried during her US Open match against Donna Vekic because of her serving woes.

At the French Open, Gauff ended her title drought, and the win helped her improve her head-to-head record over the four-time singles Grand Slam champion to 6-6. Prior to the clay-court Major, the two-time singles Grand Slam champion lost two back-to-back finals at the hands of Sabalenka and Jasmine Paolini at the Madrid Open and the Italian Open, respectively.

Gauff then struggled to play consistent tennis once again and only reached a final when the Asian swing started. At the Wuhan Open, she went past compatriot Jessica Pegula to clinch her second title of the season. Gauff then failed to defend her title at the WTA Finals as her defeats to Sabalenka and Pegula stopped her progression.

Also read: Daniil Medvedev Gives His Thoughts on Why Beating Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner is Difficult