i did it. no 🎓 #Classof2022
The 18-year-old American kicked off her French Open campaign with a 7-5, 6-0 win against Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino in the first round.
On Saturday night, Gauff celebrated her graduation from Florida Virtual Flex with a trip to the Eiffel Tower, posing pictures in her cap and gown with her parents. Speaking about her education, Gauff said:
"For me, education and my family is very important. Both my parents graduated college and my grandmothers are both teachers and I have a whole family really full of teachers. Finishing high school was important to me. I know on tour a lot of players don't always do that because you have tennis, but for me, tennis is what I do, but there are other interests that I have outside of tennis and definitely having knowledge on that can help me indulge in them more."
Speaking about playing grand slams, she said:
"For me personally I get more mentally exhausted than physically [at Slams]. Like physically, I can play 20 more matches. Mentally, I'm barely grinding through this. So I'm very thankful for them because that could have been a lot more stressful if they weren't as understanding, which they probably could have been more because there was a lot of weeks I went without submitting work. But I got it done."
i did it. no 🎓 #Classof2022