Coco Gauff ended the 2025 tennis season on more than one high note, which makes you wonder what 2026 has in store for the two-time Grand Slam champion. In a year when Gauff took home the French Open title, she also excelled on tour, collecting more titles and finishing the year by winning the Wuhan Open.
But it's in the present time, tennis's offseason, so to speak, where Gauff has made noise off the court and more in the public eye. She was recently named the highest-paid female tennis player for the third consecutive year. It is very evident that Gauff is one of the most marketable stars on both the WTA and ATP tours, so her achievement in this particular arena is well deserved.
Reclaiming the highest-paid female tennis player honor is not the only off-court noise Gauff has garnered, though, as she was recently attached to Mercedes-Benz as their newest brand sponsorship partner. Not a bad way to end a successful tennis season at all.
Coco Gauff following in the footsteps of others like Roger Federer
Automotive brand partnerships are plenty across the global sports landscape. Tennis is no exception, and Roger Federer might be the largest example as it relates to Gauff, considering that Federer was also connected to Mercedes-Benz at one point in his playing career.
Federer was no stranger to top-of-the-line, luxury, highly respected labels and brands. He was the face of Rolex for some time, and what watch brand outdoes Rolex? Federer's partnerships extended into many different spaces as well, and that's the path Gauff has walked.
To go along with her Mercedes-Benz partnership, Gauff also represents Mui Mui, New Balance, Bose, and, yes, Rolex, among others. Gauff isn't the only female superstar tennis player who has locked onto major labels and brands over the years, of course.
Emma Raducanu, Zheng Qinwen, and Iga Swiatek, for example, have all signed with Porsche in their careers, among other high-profile brands. When you have the game, the name, and the global aura, the biggest brands in the world come calling. But it goes to show just how influential these stars are globally.
Gauff is certainly at the top of that list, not just within the tennis world, but sports in general. As she continues to rise in the business world, Gauff is also killing it on the tennis courts, and she will walk into 2026 with massive expectations as the No. 3 player on the WTA Tour.